Dark Inheritance
by KJ
Summary: Chapter 18: After the arrival of a new foe, the rangers find themselves trying to sort things out, while two members of the Planetary team find themselves on Phaedos sorting out a problem of a different nature.
1. Birthday Musings

**Disclaimer: **The Power Rangers belong to Disney, Callisto belongs to Universal. The Nova's, K, the name Kaycea, the DG, Thomas and anything involving events that happened in K's world are creations of KSuzie's and belong to her. Everyone else belongs to me.  
**Author's Note: **Welcome to the sequel for _Legacy_. This chapter is kind of like my "previously, on Power Rangers" chapter lol. Basically it's a review of everything that has happened in the previous fics, through Kim's eyes. I wanted to write this prologue chapter for those who haven't read either series in a while or for those who have never read either series. Hopefully this will have everyone all caught up and ready to move forward with the next chapter. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.  
If you're interested in elaborations of the non cannon events, check out the two previous stories, _Ranger Scrolls_ and _Legacy_. If you want to know more about K and the world she lives in, check out KSuzie's _The Coins Series_.  
Much thanks to KSuzie for helping me bounce title ideas. Because you can't use the same one twice :P

Dark Inheritance  
"Birthday Musings"

Kimberly Ann Hart lay in her bed, her boyfriend snoring soundly next to her. She had a lot on her mind at the moment. Most of it centered on what the morning would bring. For most, the morning meant Valentine's Day, a day of celebrating love, romance, and giving the one closest to you a cheesy card and chocolates.

For her it was something more. For her it meant her twenty-ninth birthday. It was odd to think about. What was sometimes even harder to wrap her mind around was the fact that she had passed the twenty-nine mark years ago. If her math was right, she was really just past seventy-three. Very few people were aware of that fact though. To most, she was turning twenty-nine in the morning.

She sighed as she rolled over. Things had changed so much in her life and she spent a lot of time wondering exactly how she got here. She supposed it started in her freshman year of high school. That was when Rita first attacked, and when she and her four best friends were picked by Zordon to become power rangers and defend the planet.

That one moment set her life on a journey that brought her to where she is today. She went from being an average high school student to a superhero. They fought many battles against Rita and her monsters. They even fought against an evil ranger. A ranger that they saved and brought back to the side of good. A ranger that went on to be one of the most feared and respected rangers in the galaxy. A ranger whom she was currently sharing her bed with.

Her relationship with Tommy was another story entirely. They started dating shortly after he became good again. So much happened to them and to the team after they had started dating. He lost his green ranger powers and eventually became the white ranger. Lord Zedd, who took over Rita's post as the evil doer trying to take over the world, banished Rita. That was the year that Jason, Zack and Trini took off for the peace conferences. They left the team in good hands though, leaving Rocky, Adam and Aisha to take their places as rangers.

That had been a hard adjustment for Kim. She was quite close to Jason, Zack and Trini. However, she and Aisha became best friends and she got to know Rocky and Adam well also. The new team was there for Rita's return and her marriage to Lord Zedd, something that he was tricked into doing although he did stay with his new bride to torture the rangers.

One of their methods of torture included bringing forth Ivan Ooze to destroy the rangers and Zordon. That had not worked out as planned for Zedd and Rita. Not only did Ivan trap the evil doers, but also he failed to destroy the team. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The rangers went to Phaedos, where Dulcea gave them Ninjetti powers and they sought out and obtained the Great Power. After they destroyed Ivan, they were better than ever.

That was at the start of their junior year. Everything seemed so perfect then. She had her friends in the rangers and the love of her life in Tommy. All of that changed with the arrivals of Coach Gunthar Schmidt and a new student at school from Australia, Katherine Hillard. Both changed her life in very different ways.

Kat's arrival in Angel Grove was first. She moved in and was placed under a spell by Rita, a spell that allowed her to turn into a white cat that Aisha ended up adopting. Between the little white cat that Aisha named P.C., and her and her friends getting to know Kat, Kat managed to weave her way into their lives.

Under Rita's spell, Kat was determined to destroy Kim and steal her boyfriend. She had almost succeeded at killing her. After Kat stole her power coin, Goldar kidnapped her so Zedd could drain her energy. If it weren't for Tommy that would have been the end of her right there. As it was, she was pretty wiped out from the experience.

It was not long after that that she leaned that Coach Schmidt, the world famous gymnastics coach, would be in Angel Grove. When she finally got to practice in front of him, he offered to train her for the Pan Global Games. It quickly became obvious that she could not put in the time needed to train for the games while being a ranger. One night she went to train late, alone, which in retrospect was a stupid thing to do, and fell off the balance beam.

The only good thing that came from that was that in Kat's attempt to save her, she snapped out of Rita's spell. Kim forgave Kat, and while in the hospital decided to quit gymnastics for the rangers. It had been her lifelong dream but she was willing to give it up for the team, even after she performed so well that Coach Schmidt wanted her to return to Florida with him. After some encouragement from Kat and a little push from Zordon, Kim elected to give her power coin to Kat and work toward the Pan Globals.

It was a year and a half before the next Pan Global games took place in Florida. During that time, she had a lot to do. There were smaller competitions to worry about, training to go through, and schooling to keep up with. She desperately wanted to go home and see Tommy but every time she scheduled it, something would come up.

They exchanged letters constantly; it was their major form of communication. Between their duties and the time difference, it was rare that they talked on the phone. She knew a little about what was going on back home. She knew that the rangers had changed powers and that Rita and Zedd had left, but she did not know the details, as Tommy was too worried that they would be discovered to put them in a letter. She also knew what happened to Billy and that Aisha was gone, and her cousin that replaced her was gone as well.

She knew the team was five strong with the new yellow ranger, Adam, Rocky, and of course Kat and Tommy. She thought about the two of them all the time. She thought about how she was thousands of miles away while her boyfriend got to spend time with another woman, a woman with obvious interest in him. It bothered her that they were getting so close and that there was nothing she could do about it.

Finally, she decided that the best thing she could do for Tommy was break up with him. She was afraid they did not stand a chance. Letters were not coming as often as both got caught up in their daily activities. Phone calls were practically nonexistent, and she didn't think she would see him again, at least not until she was done with gymnastics, which she didn't know when that would be.

She did not want him cheating on her with Kat and feeling guilty about it. If they were that close, if he was falling in love with her, she didn't want to put him in that position. She was scared, worried, and lonely and that possessed her to write the stupidest letter of her life just after Thanksgiving that year. The letter that told Tommy that he was nothing more than her best friend, her brother, and that she had found someone else she loved.

That could not have been farther from the truth but she held that secret to herself for months. She felt horribly guilty afterward. It ate at her constantly. She couldn't believe she had done that to Tommy. She thought she was doing what was best but she still loved him, she always would. What if he was heartbroken? What if she ruined him as a person, as a ranger?

This guilt pushed her into making an unannounced trip to Angel Grove during her spring break the following year. They had been training so hard and she had already qualified for the Pan Globals. Coach Schmidt was giving her a few days off from gymnastics that coincided with her time off from her studies because of that. She hopped on the first plane to Angel Grove, not sure what day she was going to return. She supposed the length of her stay depended on how warm her welcome was.

Kim's first stop when she arrived was at the Youth Center. She was almost immediately filled in on what she missed. She met Carri Hillard, Rocky's girlfriend and the new yellow ranger, the girl that would eventually become her best friend. She learned about the rangers' new powers and new enemies. Plus she confirmed that she had done the right thing. Tommy was not sitting around crushed by her leaving him. He had, as she suspected, moved on with Kat.

She still loved Tommy and that was hard to swallow. However, she put a smile on her face and tried to concentrate on catching up with old friends and making new ones. It was nice to see most of the team that she had left behind, and see that Jason had returned. They hung out and had a fabulous time.

Kat offered her a spot in her house to stay while she was in town. Kim was thrilled; she didn't have access to too much money to spend for a hotel. Kat's hospitality was why she was there when everything changed. Both Cogs and Tengas attacked them in the house that night; birds she thought were long gone. The Tengas, sent out by the returning Rita and Zedd, captured Kat and started them on an adventure that stirred up a lot of old feelings.

Kim had gotten the opportunity to work with Tommy again, something that sent her heart fluttering more than she thought possible. She also had the opportunity to be a part of a ranger mission and temporarily hold the Pink Zeo powers. That reminded her of just how much she missed her days as a power ranger. It was hard to walk away from all that when her stay in Angel Grove was over and return to Florida for gymnastics.

She kept up with the team more than she had before. It was all she was thinking about. She would send letters to both Carri and Jason, eagerly waiting to hear back from them and see what was going on with everyone. She loved hearing from them, chatting with them, and making the rangers part of her life again. She even invited the entire team to come down to Florida to watch her compete in the Pan Globals.

That had been a disaster. Not the games themselves, she actually walked away with quite a few medals. The ranger's visit was a disaster. Sure, she got to meet Adam's girlfriend, who had managed to make the trip, and she got to hang out with the other rangers that she was so close with. But Tommy… she was not able to keep her feelings to herself this time. Not when he came right out and asked her who it was she left him for.

She couldn't lie; she broke down and told Tommy the truth. That ended in a kiss, a kiss that changed everything. Tommy admitted that he still loved her, even though he was with Kat. She didn't blame him though for not rushing off to break up with the pink ranger. After all, she would continue to be in Florida, theoretically training for the next major worldwide competition. The distance was the main reason she wrote the letter, and that would not change.

That kiss changed both of them, it was all either could think about for months afterward. Kim constantly dreamed about Tommy, about being with Tommy. She supposed Tommy had the same thoughts about her, and she was confident in saying those thoughts were what led to Kat cheating on Tommy months later with the man she eventually married.

Kim did not learn about that until she returned home almost two months after their breakup, where Carri informed her of everything that happened in detail. Before then, the last update she had gotten was that Tommy and Kat were still together. She had several conversations about it with Carri at the end of the summer when the two girls ran into each other at a convention for female athletes.

That had not turned out quite as they had expected it. While they were busy relaxing, a vengeful Olympian goddess who went by the name Callisto was out kidnapping anyone who had ever held a morpher. Kim and Carri were the only ones free; however, Callisto blocked Carri's access to her powers leaving them basically helpless.

It was Dulcea who came to their rescue, by teleporting them to Phaedos. At least that was what Kim thought at the time. She wasn't completely sure Dulcea had that kind of power and now she wondered if the power had not pushed her to teleport them. After all, she teleported herself freely now wherever she wanted to go. That was due to her Muirantian powers but sometimes she wondered if they had not simply opened the gate, allowing her to do things that she had the potential for to start with.

No matter how they got there, they managed to make it to the Ninjetti temple ruins, where Dulcea gave them permanent Ninjetti powers. Kim was once again the Pink Crane Ninjetti and Carri became the Yellow Panther Ninjetti. They were able to save the others and hold Callisto off for the moment. Afterward, the current rangers were able to follow them back to Phaedos and get their own Ninjetti powers. All of the powers were permanent because of the quest they went on over spring break except for Kat's. Kat had to stay connected to the morphin grid to access her Ninjetti powers.

For Kim, receiving permanent Ninjetti powers had been the last push she needed toward abandoning another run at the Pan Global Games. She was leaning against it before she got the powers. She had been homesick and she had already accomplished her dream. She would have been ancient in the gymnastics world if she continued through the next set of games.

Once she was a Ninjetti, the rangers called on her once or twice and she remembered why she loved being a ranger and loved the friends she had in Angel Grove more than anything. One of her adventures did not involve her being called on by the others; they involved her being taken by the demon Kemora. Kemora was an evil Kim, sacrificed in the pit on Muirantias and never brought back to the side of good. She killed the rangers of her world and set off to do evil in others. She had to fight the demon off, and was lucky that Kemora did not take her body over and kill her as she had done to other Kimberly's on other worlds.

Odd as it sounded, that adventure made her say aloud what had been floating around in the back of her head. That she would never lead a normal life, that she was a ranger at heart and that the west coast was her home. She immediately applied to USC so she could go to college with the rest of the team. She could not have been happier to find out she got in. She flew to France that Christmas to go over everything with her mother, and by New Year's Eve she was back home where she belonged.

Billy had returned the same day as well, and the two of them, in desperate need for a place to live, signed up to be roommates with Jason and Carri. Carri hated her college dorm mate and was moving into a four-bedroom apartment that was designed for college students. Jason quickly agreed to join her, but Rocky and Tommy were content staying in the dorm together where it was cheaper, and Kat was friends with her roommate.

This left them with two rooms that the apartment complex would fill if they did not. Jason and Carri had been relieved when Kim and Billy agreed to sign contracts for their apartment as well. They panicked about sharing their apartment with non-rangers, to the point where Carri contemplated talking her dad into letting her buy the other two rooms out. She wasn't sure it would have gone over well with her dad but it was better having that argument than having who knows what as roommates and having to worry about rushing off for ranger duty.

That turned out to be the second best living arrangement she had ever been a part of. She did not get to see Billy as much as she thought she would between him working in the Power Chamber and the relationship he started with Trini that March. However, when she was not out doing her own dating, she spent all her free time with Jason and Carri.

Living with the two of them was living with her best friends, living with people who had been bonded as if they were siblings. She and Jason had always had that kind of relationship. Jason protected her like an older brother and she was disappointed to see him go. When he returned he bonded with Carri the same way he bonded with her.

Once Kim permanently returned, it was as though she never left. She and Jason were just as close as they were before, and she and Carri were friends, a bond that grew quickly once they started living together and turned into a bond closer than sisters. She supposed they were a lot alike, which is why they all got along so well. Of course there were also differences, some more obvious than others, but those were easily overlooked.

Her new life started in that year in that apartment, a college student who saw her best friends all the time and got to fill in with the rangers on occasion. Two months later that same year saw its first major change. She and Tommy were only able to play the "just friends" card for so long. As they both knew from the previous summer, they still had feelings for each other. That March he asked her out on a date, starting the second wave of their relationship.

Things continued at the same pace for a while with her bonds with her friends growing, especially the romantic one she shared with Tommy, until the power intervened in her life again and presented her with another morpher. This one was not come by easily. This one she had received when Kat had been captured, turning her Zeo Crystal over to Kim when the pink Ninjetti found her since Kat knew there was no way Kim could free her in time.

Kat had been right, she was taken away and brainwashed in an attempt to groom her to be evil. Days later, she returned and attacked her former friends, nearly killing Rocky in the process. After several excruciating battles, they were able to free her from the spell. Even though Kat was free, things never did go back to the way they were.

Unknown to anyone, even Carri, Kat had wanted to quit the rangers for her boyfriend. Not that she regretted being a ranger, but she felt as though it was time to move on. She never planned on asking Kim for her Zeo powers back. She knew Kim wanted to be a full time ranger again, and she knew it was the best choice for the team to let her get her wish.

The incident following Kat's decision to permanently leave the rangers left her relationship with the team strained at best. It was not the decision itself, but it was the aftermath and her argument with her cousin. Kat had slowly been pushing Carri out of her life ever since she met Chris. It wasn't intentional, but they had been drifting apart while Kim and Carri got closer.

During Kat and Carri's blow out, a lot of that came to light. By the end of it, Carri and Kat weren't speaking, and their relationship has not been the same since. These days on a good day, they could do lunch with each other and chat without one angering the other if they were lucky. They don't see eye to eye on anything, not commitment to the rangers, not the other's choices in life, and especially not Kim.

Kat never technically blamed Kim for anything that happened but it was obvious that she felt Kim was responsible for the end of her relationship with Tommy, since Tommy never stopped loving her. She also felt Kim was partially responsible for her rift with Carri as Kim had replaced Kat as Carri's closest friend. She was sure there was some sort of ranger related grudge in there too. Add all that up, and after Kat and Carri stopped speaking, what was left of Kim and Kat's friendship sort of disappeared as well.

Despite all the drama, after Kim got a morpher back it was one of the happiest times in her life. She got to be a ranger again, she was Zeo One. It was happy until Dark Specter entered the picture a few months later and destroyed their Power Chamber. Much to the girls protest, the boys stayed inside the building and fought until the end, leaving them in the desert watching helplessly as the place collapsed.

They thought the boys were dead and Zordon was gone. They thought all was hopeless until Andros, the Red Astro Ranger, appeared. He gave them Astro morphers and they assisted each other, and he filled them in on Zordon's capture and Dark Specter's plan to destroy the power forever. He agreed to help them search for the male rangers, whose remains were not in the Power Chamber.

Fortunately the guys were still alive and once they rescued them and returned to Earth, they were surprised to find Billy inside a building that stood where the Power Chamber once was. It was their new Command Chamber, and Billy was waiting to give them their new powers. Kim, Carri, Rocky, Jason and Tommy became the Ninja Zeo rangers on that day. They were responsible for staying on Earth and protecting the planet from the combined attacks of Zedd, Rita and Divatox.

Andros also had a mission. He was going to chase Astronema through the galaxy in an attempt to rescue Zordon before Dark Specter and Astronema were successful. For his mission the Ninja Zeo rangers recruited him a new team in Ashley, Cassie, Carlos and TJ, a team that eventually included Andros's best friend Zhane. This was the first time in history that they had two ranger teams running around protecting Earth at the same time.

The two teams ran their own separate missions for a while, including one involving Kim facing off against Kemora again on an alternate universe. This time she managed to trap Kemora, what she thought was for good. That had been the best thing she thought she had ever done, especially considering how many alternate Kim's that Kemora had killed on her quest for more power.

Running separate missions did not last long, as shortly after their semester ended Dark Specter was ready for the final phase of his plan and he tried to bring about Armageddon. That hadn't worked as well as Dark Specter had hoped, seeing as how he was killed and Astronema was calling herself queen. The queen had managed to strip the Ninja Zeo rangers of their powers and weaken the Astro Rangers.

It was Andros's heroics that saved them all. He had gone onto the ship to try to reach Astronema, who he had recently discovered to be his long lost sister Karone. He ended up finding Zordon, who encouraged him to destroy his tube, which would create what the rangers later called the Zordon wave. Kim had been devastated by her mentor's death. However, the result of the Zordon wave helped the rangers to see that it was for the best.

The wave spread throughout the galaxy, killing most of Dark Specter's evil forces and purifying the rest. Purifying meaning turned back to the side of good, something Kim did not think about too much until recently. Karone was the only former evil doer she had contact with, and from the moment she saw her happy reunion with her brother she forgot all about her past as Astronema.

That was the day Kim thought she was done with the power forever. She was still a Ninjetti, but her morphing abilities were gone and there was no one to fight anymore anyway. Evil did continue on, but there was always a new team with new rangers there to face it. They all got occasional updates from Billy about current ranger activity, but they were never a part of it.

That changed for Kim a few years later when she was dragged one final time onto a path that would lead to her more than likely permanent status with the rangers and intergalactic affairs. In December of 2001, Kim graduated college and moved to Arizona, where Tommy was a year into his masters in paleontology. He kept a busy schedule and she was bored most of the time, and even when she did get to see him they were usually hanging out with his new friend Hayley.

Tommy received his masters during her first spring in Arizona. Days later, he was starting to work for Anton Mercer while prepping for a fast paced PhD program. Kim loved Tommy and she was happy for him, but all of the sudden he had no time for her. That was why she decided to return to Angel Grove that fall to visit with her friends while Tommy worked.

That visit had not gone quite as planned as she heard from Delphine that Rita's still evil daughter Rhianna wanted to invade Earth and avenge her parent's death. Rhianna was born shortly before the final battle with Dark Specter, and at the time was right around twenty after having been artificially aged by a wizard. She was told that her parents were dead, not purified, and she was out for revenge.

Kim decided that her best course of action was to return with Delphine to Aquitar to help stop Rhianna. She was gone for four years and a lot changed in that time span. First off, after taking off on Tommy they were essentially broken up again. She always thought that was for the best in the end. It gave him the opportunity to stay focused on school and the rangers, including a red ranger mission that he ran shortly after her departure, and his Dino Thunder team that fought Mesogog almost two years after that.

The second thing that changed was who she was. She was no longer simply Kimberly Hart, Zordon's ranger, but she became Kimberly Hart, Dulcea's protégé. Delphine had sent Kim to Dulcea for help, and once there Dulcea helped by beginning her training. She learned a lot from her mentor while she was there, and she was still learning from her on occasion. Her training earned her the name Kaycea, a name she never used on Earth but a name that was intergalactically recognized her as someone who has been trained by Dulcea.

The other change was that she had gotten a red morpher, and not by her own choice, the morpher chose her. She was the Red Planetary Ranger, while Carri was white and Zhane was green. Kim had been more than a little surprised to run into the duo during her travels in space and realize they were all hunting the same thing. Carri had been looking for Callisto, who had been the one who had helped Rhianna age because she wanted Rhianna to work with her attacking Earth.

The three became rangers after they figured out where Callisto, Rhianna and their generals were holding up. They fought against them for a while before sending out an intergalactic communication looking for help. Several teams responded, including some they knew such as the Alien Rangers and some they did not such as the Nova's.

As the Red Planetary Ranger Kim became the leader of the operation. The final battle lasted days, and when the dust cleared, the rangers thought they were victorious. Kim thanked the rangers that came to help them and sent them home. Shortly after the others left, she and Carri returned to Earth for the first time in six years.

Carri got a job as a producer and television host from her father, where she was working for him under Ausus Productions, her own company. Kim eventually found a job working in marketing for Ashley Hammond, who since her ranger days had become quite the famous designer. Kim and Carri found themselves living together and enjoying the quiet life, which did not last long at all.

Six weeks after their return, during a lunch with Jason, they were greeted by Callisto and Rhianna, who were not as destroyed as they thought they were. They quickly met with Billy who called a meeting of as many people who had been rangers over the last ten years that he could gather. Kim had been surprised at the number of former rangers that showed up at the meeting, and even more surprised at who volunteered to help them.

By the end of the day, they had a team of five that included herself, Carri, and Jason, plus Rocky and Tommy, the two boys who were the former boyfriends to the two female rangers who had spent the last four years in space. They had no clue how it was going to work out as they went to Eltar to gather the Turbo powers together. Their first mission had been awkward, but they had managed to get things done.

A few days later the new Turbo females decided it was time to set things right with their ex's. Carri and Rocky ended up in bed together that first afternoon. Kim had been jealous, Tommy was extremely hurt with her leaving him again and as a result, their relationship was nothing more than being good friends. After their discussion, Tommy quickly moved on with another woman.

Kim surprised herself by moving on as well with someone she met when she was younger. Someone that Carri knew all too well, her brother Josh. Kim and Josh's relationship was intense. He spoiled her, the sex was amazing, and they got along pretty well. Carri disapproved of her brother having a relationship with the girl she considered her sister.

In a twisted sort of way, Carri was the reason she and Josh broke up. It was Carri who first found out that Tommy still loved Kim and pushed him to get closer to her. It was Carri that helped to fill her brother's head with all the reasons why it was hard to date a ranger. And it was Carri who set her up alone with Tommy at Tommy's parent's beach house the night that she cheated on Josh with him.

All that said, Kim did not stay mad at Carri for long. After all, she still loved Tommy and she remembered why after their first night together. Even though she had fallen in love with Josh in their weeks together, she knew he was a playboy among other things and it would never work out between them in the long term. That was what pushed her toward her decision to dump him and go back to Tommy, who she had been with ever since.

Of course, there was more going on during the time she dated Josh than their relationship. Callisto and Rhianna were getting harder and harder to fight against. They kept upgrading their army, and the rangers in turn had to keep trying to upgrade their powers. Shortly after Tommy and Kim got back together, Callisto was on the brink of doing something major.

Callisto's plans were placed on hold when K showed up. K was her, or at least a Kim from another dimension. A Kim who is also known as Kaycea, another master warrior trained under Dulcea. The difference was that K was sacrificed in Maligore's pit on Muirantias, much like Kemora had been. Only where Kemora was consumed by evil, K was brought back to good with some help from her Tommy, and she and her Muirantian twin Jason developed powers over the years that they learned to cope with and use for good.

K showed up on their world dressed as Kemora, banishing Callisto to the Island of Illusion while sending Goldar and Rhianna running because she had intimidated them. After she revealed herself as K she then asked the rangers, including Billy, for their help in stopping Teeg and Kemora from taking over her world. Kim felt somewhat responsible for Kemora and she was the first to jump on board, but the others quickly followed.

Their first mission there changed Kim's life forever. They were teleported by K, along with the alternate Jason, to Muirantias to stop Kemora and close her off from the pit, where she was trying to regain her power. It was not long upon their arrival that Kim was mistaken for K and captured. Once Kemora realized she was not K, but a Kim with power who had yet to be in the pit, she made the decision to toss her in herself and claim her body, connecting herself to the pit and making her unstoppable.

Kemora did toss her into the pit on Muirantias, but fortunately for her the other rangers arrived in time to stop Kemora from joining her. They were not in time to save her though. She died in that pit, becoming reborn as a Muirantian, a being exactly like K and her Jason. From the moment she was brought out of that pit, her cells started mutating until the last of her old DNA was replaced and she was fully Muirantian. Her trip into the pit meant that she would one day have great powers, that she would live longer than her friends would, and that she was a demon spawn of Maligore, a fact that made everything different for her.

Of course, she didn't start to notice the changes for a while. They returned from Muirantias and finished the fight against Teeg before getting sent home, with Kim getting some words of advice from K and Jason before leaving. She felt a little different the first two weeks, but didn't really notice it until Callisto returned with an improved army, one the Turbo rangers could not stop.

With the Turbo powers useless Kim and Carri attacked her as Planetary rangers, something that got them both encased in an orb that was meant to kill them slowly. It wore Carri down much faster than her. That was one of the first examples of how her Muirantian cells were taking over.

While they were in the orb, the remaining rangers called the Novas in for an assist with Callisto while Tommy contacted K to rescue them. K managed to get to the orb in time, and while the Nova's were fighting, Billy was able to resurrect the old Power Coins and connect them to an ancient, stronger grid that made the coins more powerful. Once Billy was ready, the rest of the team was able to utilize the coins to get back into the battle. They won that fight, and things started to calm down a bit for a while, at least where the rangers were concerned.

Her Muirantian powers were a different story. Shortly after the incident in the orb, she could really feel how her cells had changed. She never got headaches any more. Her allergies disappeared. Scars from battles past were gone. Every muscle and joint she had ever injured as a ranger or gymnast felt like new again. Kim felt better than she had in years.

It was not long after this revelation that her powers started to develop. One afternoon she sneezed and flung herself through to the past. After a few sneezes and a few trips around the timeline, she ended up on Phaedos with Dulcea. That was the best thing for her as Dulcea taught her how to access her powers, and showed her how her powers now flowed through her Phaedosian staff.

She also got her started learning on how to control her powers, and she gave her a crystal that allowed her to return to her home world while she practiced. She had scratched the surface of what she could do and she was excited to dive into it when she got home. The major ability that had started to develop the most, the one that she was eager to work on, was inner teleportation ability. It was a long process, one that took her a while to be able to do accurately.

While she spent her time practicing, several things went on in the evil world around her. The first was that the galaxy was becoming aware of the fact that the Red Planetary Ranger was developing Muirantian powers. That was something she would knew they would figure out at some point. The second thing that happened was that Callisto went after the four hidden pieces of the Shadow Crystal. If the pieces were brought back together and absorbed by the owner, they would bring that person great power.

Fortunately for the rangers, they were able to get to three of the pieces of the crystal leaving Callisto with only one. What they did not know was that one was enough to give powers to Rhianna. Not long after they thought they had avoided that problem, Rhianna appeared with the power of one of the shards. Of course, her powers were new to her and they were not completely under her control yet so they were able to defeat her the first time. It took her a while for her to train with her powers and work on her new powers before they saw her again.

During the same period of time, Kim was continuing to work with her own powers. She had gotten a hold of the teleportation power. It was powerful and dangerous and it gave her a wild rush but she could do it. She was able to go anywhere, through space, time, and even other dimensions as long as she was aware of the dimension in question. She had other abilities she could feel brewing that she wanted to practice, to play with. This was why she started taking off in her spare time, spending years on other worlds exploring her Muirantian powers and returning with not much time passing on her own world.

Although she was still nothing more than a novice, her powers were growing, enough for her to become firmly planted on the DG, or Dimensional Guardian's, radar. Their first piece of business with her was to have Thomas trick her into helping them. Thomas was an older man who was an alternate Tommy who had led a hard life and was spending the rest of it working for the DG, fixing all the damage Kemora had done on other worlds. Thomas sent her to another world, Carri accidentally tagging along, and left her clueless as to what was going on.

Finally Thomas revealed himself, and told her that the DG wanted her to stop Kemora before she became too powerful and reconnected with the pit. Kim was able to banish Kemora from the young Kimberly's body and sent her spirit back to floating around K's home dimension. That was her first time working for the DG, and it was not going to be her last. Although she was initially defiant about working for them, Thomas's warning stuck with her. They wanted to control her since she was Muirantian and could choose to be good or evil. If she chose not to cooperate with them, they could and would kill her. As much as she was reluctant to jump on board, she knew that the next time they came calling she would oblige. She would rather do their bidding and be allowed to live.

It was not long after her first official encounter with Thomas and the DG that Rhianna returned; ready to show them her powers. Only she had more than just the one shard of the Shadow crystal at her disposal. She had mastered those powers and she had added a gem to her inventory, a gem that was created to enhance her powers and make her more deadly. They were fortunate that right before their first battle with her, they were finally able to trap Callisto in a containment orb, with help from K. K trapped Callisto and Kim hid the orb somewhere she prayed it would never be found. Somewhere the goddess should remain for the rest of eternity, unable to do damage to her and her friends.

Then the battle came and Rhianna hit them hard. They were lucky they did not die on the battlefield that day. Billy yanked them away against their will, only to tell them about a weapon they could not use. It was a powerful weapon, one that would separate Rhianna's powers for an undetermined amount of time, making her vulnerable. The only problem was that it would also completely drain their five coins. They would need a sixth coin to make it work, and the blue coin was toast.

Kim knew that creating coins was possible, and that K dabbled in it some. She knew she might be able to do it. When she went to Dulcea for help, the warrior said that the only person who would be able to assist her would be Ninjor, the ancient coin master that made the rangers original dinosaur coins. She went looking for him, and upon finding his temple, it took a lot of persuading to get him to agree to help her. However, he did and they made a blue coin that they took to Adam, asking the former ranger to help.

Adam returned with Kim and they were able to join the fight and use their weapon, which halted Rhianna in her tracks and gave the rangers a small victory. It was about a month later that they heard from her again. Now Kim knew the delay in attacks was because she was lost and confused and dating Skull of all things. She had lost Callisto's influence, Goldar was purified, and Cratus took off looking for Callisto. It was not until Cratus returned that Rhianna attacked again. At the time, Kim thought her disappearance was because she was recharging her powers while plotting on how to kill them.

It was good that there was a lull in the action. It gave the newly purified Goldar the chance to hunt down Rita, or Mystic Mother as she goes by now, and tell her that her daughter was alive and evil. Mystic Mother wanted to save her daughter, and she sought out Kim's help, promising that she would help Kim develop her powers as a sorceress if Kim would help her free her daughter from the crystal and turn away from evil. Kim agreed, and from then on, she started working with Mystic Mother.

It was the day before Thanksgiving when Rhianna finally attacked again. That battle did not start well. Rhianna managed to destroy the weapon that they could use to temporarily separate her powers from her. The battle was difficult, made even worse when Cratus got to their morphin grid and destroyed part of it, cutting the coins off from the source of their power. Kim had to leave the battle to find Mystic Mother, and upon their return they worked quickly to separate the crystal shard and the gem from Rhianna. After that, it was just a matter of turning her good, and with an unlikely aid from Skull they were able to pull her out of evil's grasp. Rhianna purified the rest of her army, and that battle was over.

Since then Kim had been keeping herself busy with working for Ashley, with Tommy, with the rangers, and with her powers, although they had not had an enemy to fight. Tommy was keeping himself busy, working part time at Angel Grove High, doing his research, staying in ranger affairs, and working on doing what needed to get done to get a house with her in Angel Grove. That was the normal day-to-day activities that kept her excited.

The not so normal activities started with her helping Billy trying to rebuild the grid so the rangers would be able to morph for future attacks. They weren't stupid, they knew there were others out there waiting to fight them. Fixing it was a slow and steady process. While she was in the Command Chamber she also talked to other teams, some of which she went to see in person on occasion.

Her biggest not normal activity was working on her powers. She had already borrowed a lot of time to help them develop. Now she was borrowing time to go work with Ninjor, who was teaching her how to make coins. She recently made her first coin, although it was not stable enough to link to a grid and even if it was the morph would be a complete disaster. However, it was a start. She was also borrowing time to go work with Mystic Mother, who was continuing to help her with her sorcery skills. Not to mention she still borrowed time on occasion to go off by herself and work on her skills.

The borrowed time was the reason why she was just over seventy-three. Assuming, of course, she kept track correctly. The path that she started on as a freshman in high school led her to this point, the point where she was Muirantian and already much older than her friends. Yet tomorrow her friends would ignore that fact. Tomorrow her friends were going to pretend that they did not know that she had probably already crossed twenty-nine a long time ago. Tomorrow her friends were going to treat her as everyone else would. As a human adult celebrating her twenty-ninth birthday.

She closed her eyes and smiled. She had accepted what she had become, what the future was going to bring her. Nevertheless, it was always nice to be treated normally, if only for a little while. Now she needed to try to get some sleep so she didn't look like she had spent the previous night lying awake contemplating everything that had happened up to her birthday. Carri would not leave her alone if she showed up to her party looking like something the cat dragged in.

That thought made her chuckle as she adjusted to a more comfortable position under the covers. She opened her eyes and glanced briefly toward Tommy, making sure none of her shuffling waked him. Satisfied she closed her eyes once more, this time drifting off into a deep sleep as the hours ticked away until her birthday officially began.


	2. Birthday Rescue

**Disclaimer:** The Power Rangers and all related properties still belong to Disney. The Nova Rangers and the DG are a creation of KSuzie's, and those belong to her. All other characters belong to me.  
**Author's Notes: **To learn more about the bad guy's brother, check out the Buffy crossover story "Hell On Earth". It's definitely not necessary to follow this story, but if you are curious about the brother, that's the one shot his tale came from.

Dark Inheritance  
"Birthday Rescue"

It was February 14, 2008 and the pink crane Ninjetti found herself sitting in her office with enough work to make her forget about the fact that not only was it Valentine's Day, but it was her twenty-ninth birthday as well. The work was welcome, she had thought long enough about the day's significance the night before.

She was so deep into her work that she did not hear the person that had approached her office and leaned against the doorframe until that person cleared their throat. Startled, Kim looked up to see her best friend standing there. "Hey." Kim greeted her, locking eyes with her briefly before glancing back down at the work in front of her. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to bust the birthday girl out and see to it that she gets a proper lunch." Carri replied with a grin. She knew Tommy was working and if she did not come by, Kim would most likely spend her lunch hour with a cold sandwich from the tiny food stand on the bottom floor. That was all right for every other day of the week, but on her birthday, Kim was going out.

Kim grinned and shook her head. "Just because you can do what you want doesn't mean the rest of us can pry away from our work as easily." She pointed out as she locked eyes with her. "I'm really busy. I've got a deadline tomorrow and I've got a lot to do."

Carri waved her off. "Not a problem. Your boss has already okayed me stealing you away for an hour." Her first stop had been Ashley's office, to chat with the company owner. Ashley had been happy that someone was dragging Kim out. She had been working obsessively ever since their last conflict was over. Both Ashley and Carri thought she was trying to make up for lost time.

"My boss?" Kim questioned, raising her eyebrow as Carri simply nodded. "So you went over my head?" Carri nodded again and Kim continued. "With Sandy?"

"Please." Carri said as she snorted. Carri thought Sandy was a flat out bitch to Kim. She could not stand the woman. She passed her on the way in and Sandy shot her a furious look. Carri simply smiled and waved. She could have said something to her, she knew Sandy hated the rare occasion she dropped by because she distracted Kim for longer than is appropriate. Sandy would love Carri to give her the opportunity to try to get Ashley to ban her from the building, which is why the sticky sweet smile and wave pissed Sandy off more than anything Carri could have said. "I went to Ashley."

Kim dropped the pen from her hands and crossed her arms over her chest. "So that means I'm expected to have lunch with you now." She tried to give Carri an angry look but as her friend's lip curled upwards, hers did as well.

"You're stuck with me." Carri replied as though it were the worst fate in the world. "At least for the next hour."

"You would think, seeing as how it was Valentine's Day and all, you'd want to celebrate it with your fiancé." Kim said as she glanced at her. "Especially considering you all insisted on throwing me a party tonight."

Carri grinned at the mention of the party. Kim had not had an official birthday celebration since college. They did not do much for birthdays last year seeing as how most of the year was spent fighting Callisto and Rhianna. Kim's was the first to come up since that conflict was over and Carri thought that if anyone deserved the sense of normalcy that came from a huge birthday bash, it was her. It did not take much convincing to get the others to agree with her.

"Don't worry about my Valentine's Day." Carri said, grinning wickedly at her. "Rocky and I spent the morning celebrating." She added in with a wink. Rocky had to work from just before lunch until almost time for the party. Carri awoke early to breakfast in bed and the morning only got better from there.

Kim raised an eyebrow, but more at what her friend had not done that day than what she had. "You still have a company to run correct?" Kim questioned, watching as she nodded. They had just started airing the second half of her friend's show, _Traveling In Style_, on TLC and as far as Kim knew she was swamped with that. Not to mention the movie she was working on getting ready for filming plus the other projects she had swarming around her head. "So you spent the morning with Rocky, and you're spending your lunch and night with me, where does that leave work?"

"I've got everything under control." Carri replied. She only had two projects she was officially working on. Since there wasn't much to do with the movie at the moment, it was mainly her current show keeping her busy. "I'm going to go in for a few hours this afternoon. And it is my company, so if I get behind I'll make up the time this weekend."

"Must be nice." Kim teased. She knew that even though Carri could take off almost whenever, she worked hard and pulled plenty of hours, just not on the same schedule as most of the working world. That was the one downfall of working for someone. Kim worked Monday through Friday and had deadlines imposed by someone higher up than her that she had to meet. Of course, at least she worked for Ashley, who understood when there were times that she had to take off.

"Oh it is." Carri promised a twinkle in her eye. She finally stood up straight and stepped away from the doorframe. "Speaking of you and your birthday," she said as she produced a box from behind her, "happy birthday." She said, laying it on her desk.

"Carri you didn't have to." Kim stopped as Carri made a noise and promptly halted anything else she would have said. Kim sighed. This past year they had not made a habit of exchanging gifts, mainly due to a lack of time. For Carri's birthday, she had wanted nothing more than her friends to join her for lunch. Carri nodded toward the gift and Kim went to open it. Inside laid a brand new outfit. "Carri."

"I can't have the birthday girl showing up to her party in any old outfit from her closet." Carri spoke quickly before Kim could say anything. Kim had a good wardrobe, but she thought it was a good of an excuse as any to get her a gift. Kim was her best friend, she was like her sister, and probably had the most difficult year last year out of all of them. She deserved to have her birthday, party, gifts, and all.

Kim stood and went around the desk. "Thank you." She said as she put her arms around her best friend and gave her a hug. Carri did not have to go all out for her. Not that she wasn't able afford it but she did not think it was necessary for Carri, or any of the others for that matter, to do all this for her.

"My pleasure." Carri replied with a smile as the hug broke up. Although Kim was going to forget all about her gift when she saw what Tommy is giving her. Carri could not wait to see the look on her friend's face. She was going to love it. Carri pushed that thought aside and glanced down at her watch. "Come on, if we don't hurry we'll be late for our reservation at Bulkmeier's."

Kim chuckled as she went to grab her things, before following Carri out the door. Of course she was going to have her birthday lunch at Bulkmeier's. Since she and Carri had returned to Earth from their ranger related missions almost a year ago, it had become their favorite place to go. She couldn't think of another place that she would want to have her birthday lunch.

* * *

Billy sat in his office, hanging up the phone after speaking with his wife. They had just had a nice conversation about practically nothing at all. It used to surprise Billy that he enjoyed the occasional meaningless conversation with Trini. Now he looked forward to talking to her no matter what the topic.

He smiled as he thought about Trini. The last few months for them had been wonderful. Sure Billy was still a workaholic. However, his work no longer involved spending as much time in the Command Chamber. He was only up there when Kim required his assistance to work on the morphing grid that had been damaged during their final battle with Rhianna. They would need that grid up and running again if they ever wanted to utilize the full power of their old coins.

There were other grids to connect to, but none that would allow the coins to use their full potential. The other grids, which are generally newer grids in comparison, did not harness the powers of the ancient coins as well as they did the newer morphers the rangers had used since then. Zordon always had their coins connected to one of the newer grids; he did not see the point of wasting energy to run the coins through an ancient grid just to fight Rita. However, Billy knew that the ancient grids were powerful, and that the coins on those grids would best even the Turbo powers on the newer grids and would probably be quite competitive with other ranger sets.

Now that the ancient grid that they had used had been damaged**,** he and Kim were working on repairing it. Repairs were coming along slowly as the ancient grids were more finicky than the newer ones. However, they had to keep going. Everyone knew that there was a good chance that the time would come again for the rangers to get called into duty. IThey wanted to be prepared when it happened.

Until then, they all found themselves with more free time on their hands than they knew what to do with. Most of the rangers spent it hanging out with others, or partying, or in some cases working. Billy knew exactly what he wanted to do with his free time. He spent it with Trini.

Trini had been more than a little grateful to see her husband home more, to be able to go out on the town with him more or even simply spend a night curled up together in bed without having to worry about an upcoming emergency. Despite the fact that she loved having him home at a decent hour most nights, she would never tell him to drop his involvement with the rangers. They were both original rangers, Zordon's rangers, and although neither had held a morpher in years, they both still believed that they had to help the planet in any way possible. That was why Trini helped him on occasion.

They were both ready to jump back into the rangers when and if the action started up full swing again, even though both enjoyed the extra time together. They were using it wisely, not sure when they would lose it. Besides the extra dates and dinners, they were working harder than before on trying to start a family.

So far, they had not been successful. Trini tried to stay optimistic and Billy refrained from pointing out all the reasons she had not to be. However, there were several valid reasons why conception was going to be more than a little hard for them.

The first was that they were both rangers. Some of the morphers rangers held did not intertwine much with human body function, while others, such as the Dino gems, were completely wrapped up in the person that held them. The power coins that they held were originally designed to prevent the pregnancy of any woman connected to their energy. Unfortunately, the energy of the coins stayed with a ranger long after their last official morph.

The effects of the coin were sporadic and would eventually wear off, but they did not know when they would be able to conceive. Kat had been lucky. She only held her power coin for six months, although it still took her two years of trying to have a child. He would be interested to see how long it would take Carri and Kim to have kids should they ever decided to try. If they went back to using the coins there was a chance the effects would never wear off.

Even males had some disadvantage from the use of the power coins, although in theory it would not take their bodies nearly as long to recover and produce offspring as the females did. As far as he knew, he was the only male ranger who had held a coin who was actively trying to have children. However, the coin wasn't the biggest thing holding him back from conceiving, it was an experiment he had done in his youth.

When the power rangers became turned into children, he had tried to figure out how to reverse the effects of the Orb of Doom in order to restore the rangers to their proper ages so they could join the fight. With some help from Cestro, he created the regenerator. He was only able to regenerate his own age before Goldar interfered. In the end that was for the best, as a year later he started rapidly aging because of the regenerator. The only treatment for him was the Eternal Falls on Aquitar. There was no telling what side effects that would have in the long run, but a popular theory was that it would affect his ability to have children.

If they could not conceive naturally, there was experimental alien technology that Billy wanted to try. He was not completely sure that his wife was keen on the idea. However, she wanted children badly, and after they reached her self-imposed deadline, she was willing to try anything. He knew she was hoping for normal, human methods of conception. Billy feared after all they had been through, nothing in their lives would be able to be normal.

Billy sighed as he went back to work. He had papers he had to finish with before going back into the lab that afternoon. Trini had provided an enjoyable distraction, but now he really needed to focus on his work.

As he got into a rhythm, alternating between the stacks of papers in front of him and the information he was accessing on the computer, a soft light glowed from inside one of his desk drawers. He opened it up and pulled out a small device. The soft blue glow indicated that they were receiving a transmission into the Command Chamber.

With a press of a button, the device flipped open revealing a small screen with a few controls below it. Seconds later Billy had tapped into the transmission coming in. As the screen came to life, the green Nova ranger was there to greet him.

"You must gather Kim and the other rangers." Garan spoke quickly. He simply had no time for pleasantries; they were in the middle of a crisis.

"What's going on?" Billy questioned. It was not unusual to hear from the Nova rangers. However, it was always Elemi who called, and usually the calls were not urgent.

"I will tell you everything as soon as you have the rangers." Garan promised. He did not want to take the time to repeat himself, that was how dire the situation was. "We need help."

"Let me page the others. I'll get back to you shortly." Billy said. He watched as Garan nodded before closing the device and placing it back into the drawer. Quickly he jumped up and went to make sure that his office door was locked before teleporting himself to the Command Chamber.

* * *

Carri tossed her napkin onto an empty plate as she glanced at her lunch companions. "See." She said as she leaned back triumphantly, "I told you so."

"Please." Kim said with a slight roll of the eyes. She was not going to let her friend have her diluted answer as the reason why she was right. Kim glanced briefly over toward Jason who chuckled. Kim simply shook her head.

Lunch was almost over and they were having a good time, laughing and joking and talking much like they'd done since they lived together. Although she had gone into it thinking it was just going to be her and Carri. However, when they got there, a few minutes late, Kim was surprised that their table was already claimed. They headed outside to find Jason there, waiting to surprise Kim with a happy birthday and a gift of his own.

Well it was not all a gift of Jason's own. He had given her a pair of shoes that matched Carri's outfit. Kim seriously doubted he picked those out. The part that was his own was the autographed copy of his book. The same book that came out the previous summer and the same book that she and Carri had refused to read, even though Carri's production company was making it into a movie.

The book was loosely based on ranger adventures, but that wasn't the part that bothered them. The book had followed her and Carri's love lives, putting all their drama on paper without their permission. If that wasn't bad enough, the cover of the book was the hero and heroine, both wearing space aged battle suits, with the heroine's being rather skimpy, and both resembling Kim and Tommy. Therefore, while the shoes were what Carri picked out for a real gift, the book was Jason's idea of an amusing gift. The worst part was, now that she had a copy she might actually read it.

"I'm just not going to argue with you anymore." Jason said simply, bringing Kim back into the moment while ending their previous conversation. The server came over and started clearing their plates. Jason leaned around the server and grinned. "We all know you're wrong anyway." He said as he got the server's attention. "Can you bring the check please?"

Kim ignored Carri's comment under her breath as she glanced down at her watch. "Crap I'm going to be well beyond my hour."

"Lighten up birthday girl." Carri said with a grin. "I've got your boss wrapped around my little finger." She said as she lifted her pinky up. Ashley had given her permission to separate Kim from her desk for a bit. It wasn't as if Kim couldn't make up for it, she had done it plenty of times before when she had ranger conflicts to attend too.

"Ashley maybe." Kim replied with a half smile. "But she's not the one who's my direct supervisor. Sandy already holds a grudge from my ranger days." Grudge was a kind word for it. Sandy flat out hated her. When she was on the current ranger team, she would disappear at random times of the day for random amounts of time. It was the type of behavior that should have gotten her fired. It was what Sandy had tried to get her fired for on multiple occasions. However, Ashley had her back, and Ashley owned the company. Sandy hated Kim for being able to disappear like that with no consequences.

"Sandy works for Ashley. Ashley is on your side. I don't see the problem." Jason was quick to point out. He was glad he did not have anybody to answer to. He had his publisher, but aside from deadlines that was not anything like having a real boss. He did what he wanted when he wanted.

"The problem is I'm not Ashley's top priority, in fact I'm not even close." Kim said with a sigh as she glanced over toward Jason. "That means she doesn't babysit Sandy. Mostly I answer to Sandy and she is in charge of me. So if Sandy's more mad than usual with me, it's going to be a bad day." Since she had stopped being a ranger, she had managed to stay off of Sandy's direct radar. The woman generally left her alone and Kim was happy. She did not want to disrupt that balance.

Carri shook her head. It was sad that when Kim ran off to save the world, she stressed out about Sandy's approval when she came back. Kim was more important than Sandy could ever dream of being. She deserved better. "You should start your own company and hire yourself out to Ashley. You could be your own boss. It's the way to go. And you cut that bitch out completely. She's totally useless anyway."

"Start my own company?" Kim repeated raising an eyebrow as Carri smiled and nodded. Kim could not help the chuckle that escaped her lips. "It was easy for you; your father took care of all the initial costs." Kim was not poor. However, a lot went into starting a company and with buying and furnishing a house with Tommy in her near future, even if she did want to start her own company she could not afford it. Especially considering she would have to hope that Ashley would go for it and that others would follow seeing as how she would need more than one client to recover her start up costs quickly.

"Well." Jason stated, grinning wickedly at Kim. "If you were interested I'm pretty sure there's another Hillard out there that would back you financially. There would be… expectations, of course."

Carri reached over and slapped Jason, who started laughing. Kim tried to ignore both of them as her cheeks turned red. "No, no and no." Kim said as she crossed her arms over her chest. She immediately got the reference. Josh would probably back her. After all, they had dated almost a year ago. It had been an intense relationship, with amazing sex, that ended abruptly after Tommy confessed he still had feelings for her. "I love Tommy; nothing is going to interfere with that."

"Good." Carri grumbled. The thought of Kim getting back together with her brother made her want to revisit her lunch. She was the one who pushed Tommy so hard to get Kim's attention. The fact that she thought the duo belonged together was only part of her motivation. The other part was that she wanted to split them up. Her blood brother and not by blood sister together like that bothered her. At times, she felt somewhat guilty about trying to separate Kim and Josh like that, but the guilt didn't last long seeing as how it all worked out in the end.

Kim sighed. Her relationship with Josh drove Carri nuts. Of course, Carri could not tell her that. Instead, she plotted and schemed until Kim ended up cheating on Josh by sleeping with Tommy. Kim understood Carri's point of view, but she wished she would have spoke up instead of letting things get so hectic. Carri was her best friend, that relationship was more important to her than any fling with her brother.

Jason made eye contact with Carri, who scowled at him. Jason threw his hands up. "Hey I'm in agreement with you. If Kim hooked up with Josh for money, Tommy would go ballistic. Although it would make for a great plot for my next book." Both Carri and Kim turned sharply in his direction. Before either could comment, the server returned and put the check down. Carri and Jason snatched it away before Kim could see it, both of them laying down the cash to cover themselves and their friend.

They sat the check back down and Kim looked at them. She was ready to insist on paying for her own birthday lunch, while Carri was ready to launch into an argument about Jason's next book. Neither girl got a chance to speak their mind though as their communicators chirped. Grabbing their things, they headed toward a secure location.

"Go ahead." Jason spoke for the group as he lifted his communicator to his mouth.

"The Nova's have a problem." Billy spoke swiftly. "I need all of you to teleport up here immediately."

"On our way." Jason said. They took one last glanced around before reaching down to their wrists. Seconds later, three streaks went flying through the air.

* * *

"What's going on?" Kim asked Billy the moment they teleported in. Billy gestured toward the viewing screen as the last two former rangers teleported in. Kim glanced over and saw Garan's distressed image looking back at her. "What's wrong?" she questioned, immediately wondering where Elemi was.

"I have asked you all to gather because we need your help." Garan said. His team had helped them on numerous occasions. He realized that only two of them were active morphing rangers at the moment, but the rest were Ninjetti and they needed all the help they could get.

"With what?" Tommy questioned as he stepped up beside his girlfriend. He was glad that it was not Elemi who called. Elemi drove him nuts by continuing to hit on Kim. Despite his pleasure at not seeing Elemi's face, the red ranger's absence was cause for concern.

"Our ship has been damaged." Garan started. That was the good news, unfortunately. "We got a distress call and when we went down to the surface we were ambushed. I cannot be certain who it was or what they want. All I know is that Elemi, Kee, Aaron, Xemmas and Pryce have all been captured. Jaxan and I barely escaped to the ship to regroup when the ship was attacked. We were lucky to get away."

"What can we do to help?" Kim questioned, immediately realizing the severity of the situation. They had to get to them and they had to help them find and save the others. It was the least they could do for all the times the Nova's came to their aid.

"We were surprised once but that won't happen again." Garan spoke with determination. "We need your assistance in locating our teammates and defeating the man that took them. It's going to take more than just myself and Jaxan."

"Of course." Kim spoke quickly before any of the others could weigh in. "Send us your exact coordinates and we will be there soon." Kim watched as Garan gave her a nod, thanking her quickly before ending the transmission.

The group of rangers turned toward each other the moment the transmission ended. "Let's do this." Carri said with a grin. As much as everyday fights interfered with the everyday, Carri found herself missing them and she always loved a chance for action.

"Hang on." Rocky said as he reached over and grabbed his fiancé's hand. "We've got two Planetary Rangers and three Ninjetti. They have already captured five Nova Rangers. We can't rush into this."

"Three Planetary Rangers." Kim quickly corrected, mind already made up that they would need Zhane to do this. With the Nova's that would make five morphing rangers, which would have to do. "And Rocky's right, they've already captured five Nova's. I don't think the Ninjetti's are going to be able to help."

"We're not staying behind." Tommy spoke with authority as the other two nodded in agreement with him. They were going to need as many hands as they could get.

Carri raised an eyebrow and cocked her head, watching as Tommy immediately shot her a look. Although starting a fight with Tommy was not the smart thing to do, she was not sure what they thought they would accomplish by coming along. Before she could open her mouth to say so, Kim jumped in.

"You won't be able to fight this guy." Kim pointed out, stopping Carri before she and Tommy got into an argument. Not that Carri was wrong, but she doubted her friend was going to be tactful. "Maybe we could use you on the ship…" Kim's voice trailed off as she thought about it. None of them were too knowledgeable about flying a ship but they could stay with the ship and let them know if there is trouble.

"You'll need someone to monitor things." Rocky chimed in. He didn't see why they couldn't just go but he did not want to cross Kim. "When you guys fight we can trace him from the ship, help track the others. And we can jump in if we need to." Rocky knew if this guy was good enough to grab five Nova's, he was good enough to take care of a couple of Ninjetti. However, he liked to accompany his girlfriend when she ran off, especially when she ran off with Zhane. It was not that he did not trust her; it was that she had admitted to sleeping with Zhane during the few years that the two of them were seperated. The fact they slept together and made him uncomfortable about them working together.

Jason crossed his arms over his chest. He hated standing on the sidelines but if he was going to do it, he'd rather be following the action than back on Earth. "He's right." Jason said gruffly. "You're going to need us there."

Kim threw her hands up in the air. She was not going argue with them, she did not have time. Besides, she would rather have them with her and not need them than need them and not have them. "Let's contact Zhane and we'll all go. We'll figure out our assignments on the ship." Kim turned toward Billy. "Did Garan pass along their location?"

"It came in a few seconds ago." Billy replied. He was not about to interrupt their discussion to tell Kim the information was in. He did not have anything to add. He liked going places with the others but he knew where his talents were best used. He would stay here, where he could help keep an eye on things, not to mention teleport the others out if necessary.

"And Zhane's location?" Kim questioned. Zhane did not have a communicator. They were going to have to go physically retrieve him.

"On it." Billy replied as he turned back toward the consoles. He started out looking for him in his normal locations. It was not long before he turned up. "Found him."

"Good." Kim said, glancing over at the information in front of Billy before reaching out and grabbing Carri's hand. "We'll go retrieve our teammate; you guys get a lock on their location. When we return we'll teleport up." Before anybody could argue, Kim teleported herself and Carri away, leaving the boys alone in the Command Chamber.

* * *

A few minutes later, the rangers from Earth arrived on the Enzway, the ship belonging to the Nova Rangers of Rheiga 4. They looked around the interior of the ship. Jason was the first to speak. "Shit." He said with feeling, giving the response that summed up what they all were thinking.

"The crew can fix the ship." Garan said as he stepped forward to greet them. "But as I am sure you can imagine, it's not our top priority." He added before walking over to Kimberly. "Thank you for coming." He said, ready to hand over the reins of the mission to the red Planetary ranger. Not that he couldn't lead but she was a red and she was experienced, and she was their best hope of getting the others back.

"Of course. Helping you rescue the others is the least we can do for all that you've done for us." Kim replied. If it hadn't been for Elemi, well she supposed there was a good chance they would have fallen to Callisto and Rhianna long before the battle came to Earth. He had been reluctant at first to follow her orders. He had never worked with a female ranger, let alone a female red. During that time he constantly made advances toward her, advances she possibly would have succumbed to if Carri had not been there to keep her far away from his bedroom.

Despite all that, after that battle the Nova Rangers became their closest allies, coming to help them several times in their battle on Earth. Kim knew the team well, and coming to their aid during their time of need was not a decision she had to think about.

"So you don't know anything about what happened?" Tommy questioned, ready to get into the matter at hand. It was hard to think that they did not have some clue as to who hit them and why.

"Like I said before, we received a distress call and we followed it here. We arrived on the surface to find nothing. Seconds later it was as though someone flipped a light switch." Garan paused and shook his head. "It was disorienting and that was when they attacked. We never got a good look at them, only shadows. They captured rangers quickly and quietly. Once Jaxan and I realized we were the only ones left, we decided we need to disappear before all hope was lost."

"Then they attacked you in the ship?" Rocky questioned, watching as Garan nodded in conformation.

"I assume they haven't made any demands." Tommy stated. If they had, he imagined they would at least have a direction to go in right now.

Once again, Garan shook his head no. "I wish we had something more to go on. But I have shared with you all we know."

"He's going to come back for the two of you." Kim said as the wheels started turning. "Why else attack the ship? Not to mention the lack of demands." Attacking the ship meant he wanted the two of them. The lack of demands meant that he was not bargaining for their teammates. They had been in this situation before.

"So then we ambush them." Carri replied. Kim was right; this guy was after the team for some reason. When he came back for the rest of the Novas, they were going to have quite the surprise for him. "See how they like it when we get them down so fast they don't know what hit them."

"It's a good idea in theory." Tommy said as he thought it over. "It's going to be hard though to ambush him if he's coming after the ship."

"Unless we float the ship out there as a decoy. The ship may take more damage, but in the meantime Kim can teleport everybody to the enemy ship and work from there." Jason suggested. The Ninjetti could stay with the ship, fight back as best as they could. If Kim and the others worked fast enough, they would not take too many hits before they brought them down.

"It's not a bad idea." Kim replied as she worked through the scenario. If she teleported using her Muirantian powers, she would not set off alarms on the ship like the rangers teleportation beams would. In addition, teleporting to the enemy ship was the one place her demonic DNA would most likely not set off any alarms. In most enemy camps, demons were welcome. However, she was not completely convinced that this was how it was going to go down. "That's assuming they attack the ship. If they want you alive, attacking the ship is risky. They may try to draw you out."

"Then we can let the Nova's go down, and before they get a chance to ambush them again we teleport in behind them for the save." Zhane suggested as he gestured to the Planetary team. "It will turn their plan into chaos and we should be able to get them."

"We'll have to prepare ourselves for fighting in the dark." Jaxan pointed out. That was what threw them off the first time. It was hard to fight like that.

Carri pointed a finger at Kim. "Fire ranger, remember." She said with a grin. "I think she can help light the way."

"I can certainly see what I can do to help the situation." Kim replied. She was not sure if starting a fire on the grounds of an unfamiliar location was a good idea. Her luck she would start a chain reaction, creating a flame too big to put out.

"Besides fully morphed, you should have night vision capabilities." Zhane pointed out. It was not as easy to see as it was when there was natural light guiding the way, but it was better than nothing.

"We do." Garan said with a nod. It had all happened so fast last time; they had not had a chance to adjust to night vision before the others got taken. This time they would know what to expect.

"We'll run things up here." Rocky said as he gestured to the other Ninjetti. If it was a night battle, they were definitely out of the fight. Ninjetti's did not see in the dark any better than anybody else did. "We can follow the bad guys, keep a lock on you all."

Jason nodded in agreement. They would do whatever was necessary from their position on the ship. He wanted to jump into battle but it was not feasible. "We'll make sure you get the rest of the Nova's back."

"Let's go through strategies." Tommy said as he glanced over toward Kim. He waited a brief second for her to nod in agreement before continuing. "We need to work through all the possible scenarios. We may only have one shot at this. Failure isn't an option."

"Right. This way." Garan said as he led them off to another room that had access to the ship's computers and room for them to sit and plan. Things were coming together and he was grateful to have all the extra help. They were going to defeat the enemy and save the rest of the Nova Rangers.

* * *

The restrained red Nova Ranger watched their enemy pace around from his position on the wall. He had no idea how they got here and he had no idea what happened. He remembered the distress call, and he remembered the sudden eclipse. The next thing he knew he had been powered down and was hanging from the ceiling in a tight group with the other rangers, his hands and feet bound.

At least Garan and Jaxan were not here. He had to hope that his two teammates had escaped, gone to regroup, possibly gather help. There was no doubt in his mind that Kim would come if they asked her. Despite the fact that she rejected his advances, their working together had led to a good relationship. That was their best hope that the green and yellow Nova Rangers would return with assistance. He would try to do everything he could from here, but there were only a few ways this would end well.

Elemi watched as the man who was apparently in charge stopped briefly and made eye contact. "You won't get away with this." Elemi promised. He was trying to get him to say something, anything so that he could get a better feel of the situation. The only information he had on their attacker was the man's exterior features, the two small horns coming out of his forehead, his irregular shaped ears and his long fingers with claw like nails. He was running through alien races in his head, trying to figure out where this man was from. He had never dealt with his kind before but there were a few possibilities that stuck out.

Arius smiled as an amused sound escaped from between his lips. He did not know what this ranger thought he was going to do to stop him. He had already captured him and four of his teammates. As soon as his people were in place, gathering the other two would be easy. There was no escape, not with the type of restrains he used on them, and there was no hope.

He continued to pace around and wait for news silently, watching as the red ranger grew agitated. He loved his job. He was born to do great things as his people were very powerful. As a first-born child, he inherited all the ancient power his people had to offer. He had accomplished an array of evil deeds in his lifetime. He could do whatever he wanted. Right now he chose to work for a creature more evil with more power than he had.

It was not necessarily that working for someone pleased him. However, the man that he worked for saw his status growing quickly as his skill and power increased exponentially. He had goals that ended with him as the Emperor. Arius had no doubt that he would figure out how to become the emperor of the evil empire, reuniting it and making it something much greater than it ever saw during its former era. If he stood by his side, with all his power and skill, he would become the second in command of this empire. Second in command was a much better position than simply being an inhabitant of the empire.

The question was how to rise to that high level of position. The evil empire had scattered over the last nine years. Things were now run quite differently and people were not going to pull back together for just anyone. There was not anyone out there with a legitimate claim to ruler of the empire. Without a legitimate claim, those interested in the position would have to come up with some sort of alternative method to assert their claim to the throne. To say it was impossible would be an understatement. Many had tried; none had come anywhere close to success.

Today's outing was set up as step toward the throne. His master had an idea for a project that involved a complete set of ranger powers. Something that would certainly raise his status in the community and his power, inching him closer toward his goal. It was up to him to figure out how to collect the ranger powers.

That part was easy. Seeing as how it did not matter what set of ranger powers he retrieved, he set a distress signal up and waited for the first set of rangers to respond. When they did, he created the total eclipse that blinded and confused them. In addition, it was his homemade talisman that when attached to a morphed ranger powered them down and rendered them unconscious. Taking them out was easy.

He had not counted on having two escape. He could only use the magical device he created to trap their powers once. Try to use it more than once and he risked letting some of the rangers powers escape. That was too much of a risk for him to take. Therefore, he needed to drain the entire set at once.

This was only a minor setback. There was nothing that two rangers could do that would be able to stop him. He had damaged their ship so they could not escape, so he knew they were still close by. Soon he should receive word from his minions that they were in place to retrieve the remaining to rangers. Then he would have a complete set of ranger powers for his waiting master.

* * *

"So then that's it, we're ready?" Jason questioned as he looked over the others. They had gone over every possible scenario they could possibly come up with, and then some. Jason thought it had become a tactic to keep busy more than anything else. There was no sign of the enemy or their ship and that left the rangers in a holding pattern.

"As ready as we're ever going to be." Tommy replied. He did not like that all of Kim's ideas for his assignments involved him staying on the ship. If they needed him, he would have to go help them no matter what Kim said. Even the best plans could see unexpected twists.

"We'll have to." Garan paused as one of the control panels started to make a sound. "What's going on?" He questioned as he followed Jaxan.

Jaxan maneuvered the controls as he carefully looked over the cause for the disturbance. "It's a distress signal. The same one as before." He said as he analyzed it further. "Only this one isn't coming from the planet's surface, it's coming from one of the moons."

"He's sending you his calling card." Carri commented. It was obvious he was not trying to hide the fact that he was out there, aside from the change of location.

"He wants you to know it's him." Kim agreed with her friend. "He probably assumes you'll come down, probably looking for a way to bargain for your friends back. All the while he'll have the opportunity to capture you both."

"So then shall we go with our initial strategy?" Garan questioned as he looked toward Kim.

The red ranger nodded. "You two teleport down to the surface. Be ready for a night attack. We'll follow behind the moment he starts to make his move."

"Right." Garan said. He and Jaxan maneuvered into position, morphing quickly before disappearing.

The three male Ninjetti moved to track the Nova's. Within seconds, they were on the screen on the moon's surface. "Be careful." Tommy spoke just as the scene in front of them went dark.

Kim immediately recognized the action as simple shadow manipulation, which was one of the first things that Mystic Mother taught her. However, there was not time to dwell on that now. "Planetary Rangers, power up!" she called out as she, Carri, and Zhane morphed and teleported out.

They got down there, night vision activated, just in time to see the bad guys move in. The three Planetary Rangers were quick to call on their weapons, attacking anything that moved that was not in ranger uniform. The five spread out and tried to move quickly, hoping to come across the ringleader and figure out what he did with the others. It appeared as though for the moment they were swamped with his Putties, Cogs, or Cirranadrones, whatever one wanted to refer to them as.

Arius stood in the shadows, watching. There were five rangers, which was something he was not expecting. Only two of them were Nova Rangers, which meant he only needed to bring two of them back with him. The other three appeared to be Planetary Rangers, which presented him with a very interesting situation.

He was not going to confront the Planetary Rangers, not now anyway. His questions with them would be settled at a later date. He was not going to risk this operation. Instead, he would do like he did before. Slip the Nova Rangers out one by one while the others are not looking. By the time the Planetary team realizes something is wrong, it will be too late.

Glancing around, he spotted the Green Nova Ranger. He would make the perfect first target. Arius reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his talismans. He walked over and slapped it up against the unsuspecting ranger's back. He caught him as he collapsed and powered down. He quickly teleported him away to drop him off, not noticing his extra baggage until it was too late.

No one else noticed what was going on over on that part of the battlefield. Most of the rangers were busy knee deep in fights of their own. Which is why Kim was quite surprised when Rocky's hurried voice came through her helmet. "Carri's gone."

"Gone?" Kim questioned as she swung her sword at the enemy before taking a brief look around. "What do you mean gone?"

"I mean your guy took Garan and she hitched a ride. We followed her signal. You need to get to her." Rocky said with a hint of panic in his voice. This guy has been taking Nova's down and Carri just jumped on for the ride. He doubted she even gave it a second thought. She was lucky he was trying to pay her close attention. Otherwise, they may not be able to follow her signal. At least they knew where she was, although they were having trouble getting a visual.

"If he took Garan, he probably went to deposit him with the others." Kim paused as she dodged an oncoming attack. This was pointless. These things were tough, but they were not acting like they were here to kidnap them. They needed to follow Carri's lead. "Can you teleport us to him?"

"Done." Tommy's voice came through loud and clear. Seconds later the three remaining rangers were removed from their current position and dropped into the middle of a mini battle.

Kim glanced around, and immediately noticed the remaining Nova's tied up, Garan's unconscious form lying on the ground nearby. The second thing she was aware of was the white ranger, ducking, dodging, and trying to get a shot in. Aside from an occasional lightning jolt, it did not appear as though she was doing well.

Some of the creatures they had been fighting on the moon teleported in and Zhane immediately led Jaxan into battle against them. Kim elected to go toward Carri's aid. She paused as she approached, getting a good look at the creature attacking her. He was a Drakonian. She had had experience with his kind before. From the amount of power it appeared as though he himself was wielding, she had to assume he was the first born in his family.

Kim quickly levitated high in the air, calling for the full power of her fire saber and attacking him from above, catching him unaware. "Took you long enough." Carri grumbled as Kim hit the ground near the Novas.

"How about a thank you." Kim called back as she quickly turned toward the others. Using the full power of her sword, she was easily able to cut through the restraints. She turned back toward the Drakonian just as Elemi positioned the team to morph and join in the battle.

"Well." Arius stated as he stood and glared at the red fire ranger. Like it or not he was going to have to deal with the Planetary Rangers. Especially since they just freed the Nova's, who were now scattering to take on his forces. "I suppose I'll have to kill you first." He could just use the talisman, but there was no guarantee he could take them all down in time. He would simply have to go for the death shot, and then try again with the Novas. He maneuvered his hands with a purpose and energy flowed through them, firing at the red ranger.

Kim made a frustrated sound as she teleported herself away in a flash of red light, landing behind him. "Not going to happen." Kim said as she kicked him hard in the back.

Arius flew forward, rather surprised by her actions. He had an idea of what was going on but he was not certain. "It appears as though you're going to provide a challenge. I like a challenge." He said with a smile as the Drakonian and the Muirantian engaged in battle.

Carri watched as the duo had apparently completely forgotten about the fight with her. That was fine; it left her to rejoin the others. She ran over toward Zhane and Aaron, who were fighting the creatures. "How do we get rid of them?" Carri asked, hoping there was a quick and easy answer.

"We're not sure yet." Zhane replied. The battle was fierce and he was not completely sure how to destroy these things. They fought well but there had to be some method of getting rid of them, other than him using his Planetary powers to open up a hole in the ground and hope they fall into it.

"Great." Carri said with a sigh as she kicked one back. "So just beat the crap out of them and hope for the best?"

"We will work to find a better solution than that." Elemi responded from behind her as he fought his own battle with the creatures.

"Until then…" Carri said, allowing her voice to trail off as she used her lightning lance to zap a few of them back.

The flash of light from the electric jolt caught Arius's attention. There were now eight morphed rangers fighting against his small army, not counting the current thorn in his side. He had not thought that dealing with this many rangers in a fair fight would be an issue. He had not brought enough of his army to accommodate the situation. They had not quite figured out how to disable them yet. That did not matter, as his army was too small to overwhelm the rangers. At the rate this was going, the two groups could battle like this for years.

As for his own battle, he had not come prepared for this. It was not as though he could not battle the red ranger; it was that this was not the proper way to go about it. He needed a situation where he had the advantage going in. He knew nothing about her except for the tidbits he picked up during the fight. Although he knew he was more powerful, he did not think he was going to be able to get the upper hand, not when she caught him by surprise.

There was much to report back. Besides, this battle was not going to swing in their favor anytime soon. He would need to regroup and recollect if he was going to go after a full group of ranger powers again. He would have to think of a new strategy. He doubted a distress call would work twice. With a sudden surge of power, he threw the red ranger off of him. "Until next time." He said before disappearing, along with his army.

The rangers found themselves stopped mid battle as everyone disappeared. Elemi quickly approached Kim. "Thank you for coming to our aid."

"You're welcome." Kim said with a brief nod as she smiled at Elemi from behind her helmet. "Any idea what all of this was about?"

Elemi shook his head. "I was unable to get him to divulge any information." It was not for a lack of trying. The creature that took them was too smart to engage in conversation with him. "Rest assured that we will be on the lookout for him in the future."

Kim nodded in agreement. He had attacked the Nova's, he doubted Elemi was going to let him simply escape. "Let me know if you hear anything. We'll be glad to assist you again if necessary." Kim assured him.

"Thank you." Elemi said as he looked around the room, glancing briefly at the unconscious ranger on the floor. "Pryce, Xemmas, gather Garan. I believe it is time to return to our ship."

The blue and white Nova Rangers moved quickly to follow Elemi's orders. Once they were supporting the weight of the green ranger, they all teleported themselves back to the Enzway.

* * *

Arius sat on his ship as it barreled back to his home base. His master was not going to be happy that he was not returning with the required set of ranger powers. He was going to be more displeased by the fact that in order to capture their powers, he was going to have to start over.

However, he had other information to report, information that was going to keep the trip from being a total loss. He had heard of the red and white Planetary Rangers from his brother. This was the last message he ever got from him. He had heard through other sources that the red ranger killed his brother.

His brother's plan had been moronic and a waste of time, and he had told him so. If he had ever listened to him, he would still be here. Instead, he tangled with Planetary Rangers, rangers who his brother had thought to be too powerful for him to handle alone, which is why he requested his help. Arius had simply laughed at him, but now he knew that to be true.

The white ranger was powerful enough in her own right, but although she had a few tricks he was fairly certain he could defeat her. The red ranger concerned him. She had much more than just her Planetary powers at her disposal. He doubted his brother had any idea what she really was. His brother didn't have the power to sense that kind of ability in others.

The moment the red ranger levitated over his head, he had a feeling she was something more. He had suspected she was demonic when she teleported herself with the red energy from within. He had heard that the red Planetary ranger, Kaycea as some referred to her, had special powers. There was plenty of speculation throughout the galaxy as to what they were. He had dismissed all of the rumors. If she was truly trained by Dulcea, she wouldn't be any of the things they said she was.

Once he felt the energies surrounding her, the energies she used to attack him, he knew one of the rumors was true. Kaycea was Muirantian born. He did not understand how the Muirantian demon was eligible to be trained by Dulcea, or hold Planetary powers. He did not fully understand the ramifications of this, although there were quite a number of those in the galaxy who were frightened by what she could become. He thought she could be destroyed. Perhaps that would be what his master needed to thrust him into a position of power.

There were several different paths that his master could take next. He could get sent to eliminate Kaycea, bring her head back on a platter for all to see. On the other hand, that idea may get overlooked in favor of a full set of ranger powers. Either way he was looking forward to his next project. His ship would return soon and he would get a definite direction to go in.

* * *

Kim and Tommy headed into the club that housed a room reserved in her name for her birthday party. She had never been here before, as far as she knew the place was quite exclusive, but Carri had been the one to set this whole thing up and she imagined she was able to pull some strings.

She glanced down briefly at her outfit as she got pulled through the halls. Carri's gift had consisted of an intricate blend of reds and pinks, signifying her status as both pink Ninjetti and red Planetary, with the gift Carri picked out for Jason being the red heels to match. That was not the best matching accessory she'd gotten as a gift. Tommy had given her a necklace with diamond accents and pink and red intertwining rubies, and the earrings to match. She had thought that Carri and Jason had spoiled her before but when she got home from work she was floored by Tommy's gift.

She almost had not made it home to get Tommy's gift, she almost had to change in the office and meet him at the club. She had too much work to complete when she returned, and that was with cheating. It was late in the afternoon by the time they finished going over things with Elemi and said their goodbyes, returning to the Command Chamber. Her friends had simply groaned and returned to work, knowing that there was a good chance they would be putting in long hours over the weekend.

Kim had no desire to return from her lunch that late. Sandy was going to throw a hissy fit. She knew Ashley would understand, all the former yellow ranger would have to do is call Zhane to confirm what happened. Even with Ashley's approval, she was still going to be way behind on what she needed to get done with before her party, especially if she was going to meet her deadline the next day.

Instead of dealing with all that, Kim cheated. She teleported herself back to her office at the time she would have returned if she didn't get paged at the end of lunch. It was stealing time, but it wasn't the worst offence she could be guilty of. After all, she cut time constantly when she was off practicing her powers. Her giving herself a few extra hours at work was not something that would change her dimension's timeline or change the world.

She wished it was that easy with the Nova's. She wished she could have simply teleported back in time and kept them from ever getting kidnapped in the first place. However, that could result in there being a serious timeline deviation. Dulcea had cryptically warned her about being careful with her powers when they started to develop, about making sure she did not alter the direction things were going in by fiddling with the past. Kim had no clue how much prodding was technically altering. She was fairly certain that saving a few hours at work was ok. However, she did not want to do anything that might put her firmly on the DG's radar, not before she was ready. She would settle for saving the Nova's the old fashioned way.

Therefore, she returned after lunchtime and worked her butt off to get out of there on time, only confessing to stealing time when Ashley called her into her office. The former ranger was quite surprised to hear from her husband who had just talked to his best friend about the mission he just returned from with Kim and the others. As far as she knew, Kim had been working the last few hours. Fortunately Ashley was not concerned with the offense, she was more curious about what exactly was going on.

Kim felt Tommy squeeze her hand as he stopped in front of a door to a private room. "You ready for your party?" he asked as he caught her eyes and smiled at her.

Kim smiled back. She would almost rather spend the night at home with Tommy, the two of them celebrating her birthday in bed. However, her friends had put a lot into this party and she appreciated what they were doing for her. She would enjoy letting loose with them for a little while. Besides, there was always time to have a more intimate celebration with Tommy later. "As ready as I'm going to be." She replied with a grin.

Tommy reached out and opened the door, and to Kim's surprise, she found almost every ranger she had ever worked with in her youth, including most of the Astro team, waiting to yell happy birthday. "You guys." Kim said as she stood in the doorway and looked them all over. She knew Carri had said they wanted to celebrate, but she did not know that meant pulling so many people together just for her.

"No protests from the birthday girl." Carri called out from her position in the back of the room, leaning back up against Rocky. She figured Kim was going to think this was too much for just her, but she would kick her butt if she said it aloud.

"That's right." Aisha quickly agreed as she reached out and grabbed Kim's arm from her position at the front of the room. Those who saw Kim on an everyday basis insisted that the others be the first faces to greet her. Aisha was happy to oblige. It was fun to be able to be there, front and center, for Kim's birthday. She smiled at the birthday girl as she continued her thought. "The only thing birthday girl is allowed to do is come in and celebrate."

Kim said nothing; she simply smiled at Aisha and allowed her to pull her fully into the room. She caught a glimpse of Tommy laughing as Aisha pulled her into the party. She could hear the door shut behind her as everyone gathered around her. She found herself really touched by the party as everyone started coming up toward her. This would definitely be one of her most memorable birthday celebrations. She was going to relax and enjoy the night, starting her official twenty-ninth birthday and temporarily allowing herself to forget about everything else.


	3. Return of the Rangers: Part One

**Disclaimer:** All known members of the Power Rangers universe belong to Disney. Any reference to the Novas, adventures on K's world, K, and the DG are creations of KSuzie's and those belong to her. Everyone else belongs to me.  
**Author's Notes:** There are references made in this story to "Forever Red". Since TJ was never a red ranger in my world, he was not a part of the mission. However, in my world, Rocky would have been a part of the red ranger mission.  
Also, at some point there will be an image up on my profile page of the Planetary Rangers team, so that you can all get an idea of what their uniforms look like.

Dark Inheritance  
"Return of the Rangers"  
Part One

It had taken hours to return but the next day Arius finally made his way back to the being in charge's layer. "Deimos." He greeted, giving a slight bow before looking up at the creature on the throne. He appeared to be quite a threat to most. He was tall, built, with hard crimson skin and black armor covering it. He had long claws on his hands and feet, black wings on his back and two curled horns sticking off the top of his head. He was strong, smart, and had more power than most knew what to do with. It was why most would not dare to cross him.

"Did you return with ranger powers?" Deimos questioned. He needed those powers now for his next step toward emperor. He doubted Arius failed him; Arius was his second in command because he always came through better than planned. At least he hoped Arius did not fail him. He had a low tolerance for failure, and he hated to see such talent go to waste.

"No. There was a… complication." Arius replied. This being is not one you wanted to tell that you failed. He could see the look on Deimos' face. Before he could think of a way to punish him, Arius continued. "Three Planetary Rangers showed up to aid the Nova Rangers we had captured."

"And with all your power you couldn't stop three Planetary rangers?" Deimos questioned. If that was the case then perhaps this was not who he wanted by his side when he rose to power.

"Two of the rangers were easy to battle but the third… I was unprepared. It will never happen again." Arius assured him. This was embarrassing enough to have to report. When he was done here, he would hopefully be given permission to go out and bring the ranger's heads back. "The red ranger, the one they call Kaycea, is Muirantian born. I had dismissed the rumors but now I know it to be true. I could bring you back her head, or her powers, whatever you desire."

"Muirantian?" Deimos repeated, suddenly quite interested in what happened. "This is better than I could have hoped for. I may have just found my ticket to restoring the evil empire and becoming its monarch."

"I don't understand." Arius said. She was a Muirantian demon, but he did not see how that would bring the empire back together.

"Yes I suppose you wouldn't." Deimos replied. Muirantian born did not just mean coming from the island, it meant coming from the pit, the pit that once entombed Maligore, the pit that carried his demon DNA. Anything born from that pit was a child of Maligore. "Kaycea is a daughter of Maligore."

"Daughter of Maligore?" Arius repeated. He knew nothing of Maligore. Whoever he was, whatever he had been, he had not been of any importance since he was alive.

"Yes, daughter of Maligore, who was the twin of Dark Specter." Deimos continued, watching as Arius started to understand his excitement.

"That would make Kaycea the only legitimate heir to the throne." Arius said as things started clicking together. Upon Dark Specter's demise, if his twin were alive he would have inherited the evil throne with no question. However, without Maligore around, the only one left that had a legitimate claim for the throne would be his heir.

"We must bring her here to be my wife. She is the only one with the power and authority to bring the evil empire back together. Once she does they will accept her as their leader, then as her husband all I will have to do is take over." Deimos quickly explained his newest idea for the throne. This was the only idea in the galaxy that would be guaranteed to work.

"But how? She is a Planetary Ranger, a student of Dulcea. Despite her demonic birthright I doubt she'll be happy to oblige." Arius pointed out. They could not just bring her here; he doubted she would stand for it.

"Yes that is an odd occurrence indeed." Deimos agreed. Somehow, she was given powers and teachings reserved for only those who were champions of good, despite her demonic heritage. It would not be easy to get her here or keep her here. Although he supposed he only needed to keep her here long enough for her to birth his child. Then the child would be his legitimate tie to the power forever. Therefore he really only needed to worry about getting her here.

"Take an army down to Earth. Kidnap the other two rangers on her team. If that does not work, start the destruction of her planet. Once she starts seeing things getting destroyed and her friends and family dying, she'll come quietly." That was assuming she was as good as her other titles made her out to be. Of course, if she had an ounce of evil in her, she would be happy to oblige him.

Arius gave him a slight bow. "Yes Deimos. I will not disappoint you." He promised as he turned and started his preparations to leave for Earth.

* * *

The next day Carri found herself a passenger in Rocky's car, looking out the window as they finally pulled off the highway. She had no idea where they were going or what they were doing. All she knew was that she woke up and barely had a chance to drink her coffee before Rocky told her to shower and change so they could go for a ride. She did not know ride meant going this far out and he had been silent so far as to where they were going.

Finally, they pulled into the outer limits of a town and Carri glanced down at the sign. "Turtle Cove?" she questioned. She vaguely knew of the place. She knew the Wild Force team once operated there. "What are we doing here?"

"Remember how we talked a few months ago about me opening up another school?" Rocky questioned, turning briefly toward her. He watched as she nodded and he continued. "The other schools have been doing so well I want to do it."

"So you chose Turtle Cove?" Carri questioned, raising an eyebrow. Not that it mattered, she was just curious as to why, out of all the towns, he chose this one.

"It's a marketing strategy." Rocky admitted with a grin. His other three schools did really well. They were all in parts of towns that were quite aware of the fact that aliens constantly wanted to come to Earth. The people there wanted to know how to defend themselves just in case. That was why when he first started looking into towns for his schools, he started with ones that once housed rangers. "I wanted to use a ranger town."

Carri nodded, it made sense. They were where the people felt as though they had been the most vulnerable. "So are we going to spend the afternoon looking for a place to set up shop?"

"Actually we've found a place." Rocky said with a grin. Well he had not found a place. He had contacted an old friend when researching Turtle Cove who had suggested the place.

"We?" Carri asked. She did not like the "we" reference. It was not the two of them as the "we". If it were Jessica, his Stone Canyon secretary, as the "we" she would probably go ballistic.

"Cole Evans. Red Wild Force ranger." Rocky replied.

"I didn't know you knew Cole." Carri said. She only knew of him. She had seen him and the Wild Force team at the ranger meeting they held right after they returned to Earth. However, she never actually met any of them.

"We've known each other for a few years, since right after the red mission." Rocky replied as he thought about their trip to the moon years ago and his first encounter with the Wild Force red.

Rocky originally met Cole right after Carri left to go on her mission. He had been depressed that she was gone, and Tommy's call to go off on a red ranger mission was just what he needed. He was surprised to get Tommy's call. He had not realized that Tommy had been monitoring the rangers and ranger related affairs after the Zordon wave.

Tommy had kept up with all the teams on Earth. Once he started working with Anton, he became a bit more involved with the rangers. Then after Kim left him, he had no reason not to become completely involved in ranger affairs again. He had been more intertwined than he would like to admit while he finished his PhD.

That was why Tommy ran their mission. When he got word of the Machine Empire's generals trying to resurrect Serpentera, he immediately started strategizing. At first, he thought it was a mission for his old team, but he realized with Kim and Carri's disappearance that was impossible. Then he decided he should pull all the former reds. Reds, for the most part, were the best in battle and got the best weapons. There were ten total that he could call from, he thought that should be enough to stop the Machine Empire.

The biggest problem was that the first three reds, Jason, Tommy and Rocky, no longer had powers. Jason still had his power coin, as Rocky's was merely a copy, but since his powers were transferred he was no longer connected to the grid. The Zeo Crystal had been drained during their last battle, which kept Tommy from being able to call on Zeo five and Rocky from being able to use his red Ninja Zeo powers.

Tommy had gone to Billy to see if there was any solution. Billy had done extensive research on the grids and their former powers to see if the two were able to be linked up again. With morphing powers, the initial connection to the grid wasn't difficult, and once they connected to the grid both the powers and the grid ran in harmony so that they would forever worked together. Once the powers became drained or separated, they were pulled violently from the grid they used, and the grid did not necessarily snap back into the same wavelength.

In order to sync Jason's coin up, the grid and the coin would have to be put on the same wavelength and Billy would have to hope the grid would accept the coin. To reactivate the Zeo Crystal, Billy would have to get the grid to charge the Zeo Crystal back up again, and then get the grid and the crystal to synchronize so that the Zeo powers would work again. Billy had done a lot of research and trial and error over the years, but he could not figure out how to manipulate the grids quite right until last year when he put their coins on an ancient grid.

What Billy did come up with was an artificial grid. It was not a true morphing grid and it would not hold the power long enough for any serious campaign, but it would charge the crystal and the coins long enough for them to run this mission, assuming they only morphed when necessary. Billy's best estimates were that they could get a couple of hours out of the morph before the crystal and the coins drained the grid's power.

Thanks to Billy, Jason, Rocky and Tommy were able to join Andros, Aurico, Leo, Carter, Wes, Eric and Cole on the moon, fighting and eventually stopping the remnants of the Machine Empire. After meeting all the other red rangers, Rocky for the most part kept in touch, which was not hard considering Tommy liked to keep all the red rangers informed just in case they ever needed to band together for battle again.

"Right." Carri replied, pulling Rocky out of his thoughts. She had all but forgotten about it. The mission went down after she had left Earth. She heard about it in detail after she returned but it was not something she had thought about often. "And you guys have been friends since?"

"All the reds have kept in touch thanks to Tommy." Rocky said. At least he kept in touch with everyone up to Cole. It had been a while since all the reds gathered officially. The last time was when Tommy had wanted to update them on some things in person, as opposed to his usual email or conference call, sent through a secure device Billy made. Shane had just ended his tenure as a ranger and he got a chance to meet him, along with Hunter, then. He did not meet Conner or Nick until last year, when Tommy pulled as many of the reds aside that he could gather before their ranger meeting to briefly touch base. He had yet to officially meet Mack, other than a quick call to him to see if his team could help them.

"I think I'm going to go on a yellow ranger mission." Carri joked with a grin. "Start some yellow bonding." She had not realized all the reds had kept in touch. Perhaps every color should have their own team-building event. Carri chuckled to herself. That could be a huge disaster.

Rocky smiled as he pulled into a parking lot. He knew too many former yellows happily retired for that to ever happen. "Here we are." Rocky said as he put the car in park and cut the engine off.

Carri stepped out and glanced over the building in question. It was a decent size and she assumed it would serve his purposes well in that regard. She would have to see the inside of it first. Before she could vocalize that thought, a voice cut through the silence in the parking lot.

"Rocky!" Cole yelled as he spotted his fellow red. He jogged over toward him, a golden retriever trotting beside him and another former ranger following him. "It's good to see you." He said as he approached, giving him an enthusiastic greeting. He had been happy to hear from him the previous month. Rocky had been looking for a place to open up a school and was asking about Turtle Cove. Cole was happy to answer questions. Much to Rocky's surprise, Cole had even scouted out places for him and volunteered to keep an eye on the place for his friend.

"Good to see you too." Rocky said as he took a step back and motioned for Carri to join him. Carri walked around the car and Rocky put his arm around her. "This is Carri Hillard, my fiancé."

Carri stuck her hand out. "Nice to meet you." She said with a smile. She did not know this was going to be a meet and greet day, but they were all ranger family so she supposed it was all right.

Cole took her hand and shook it with more excitement than Carri was expecting. "It's good to finally meet you." He said. He had heard about her from Rocky, and he had seen her in the meeting they had the previous year, but they never actually met.

As Cole let go of her hand, he turned and put an arm on the shoulder of the woman behind him. "This is Alyssa Enrile. Former Wild Force White."

Alyssa smiled and said hello to the two rangers. After they exchanged pleasantries, Carri glanced at Alyssa curiously. "So are you and Cole an item?" It was her way of asking why in the world was she here without coming across as bitchy.

"Nope. Just friends." Alyssa replied with a grin. She could guess where the question came from. She was the only other former Wild Force ranger to be out here greeting them with Cole. Plus, they were really friendly with each other. However, it was not for romantic reasons. Cole came to her while looking for a place for Rocky. He knew she studied karate, and after he had picked out a few buildings, he thought she could help him get perspective on which one was perfect.

Seeing a former ranger running a school in Turtle Cove got her thinking. She always felt bad about not taking over her father's school, even though it was his dream and she had wanted to follow her own. Although she did not intend to abandon her kindergartners, she thought that she could help out as a part time instructor and pass along some of her father's teachings. With that thought Alyssa continued. "I wasn't specifically coming here with Cole; I came to volunteer my services as an instructor part time."

"That would be great." Rocky replied. He had intended on hiring someone to teach full time, and another person part time, and then he would add more assuming the business grew. He also needed to hire a part time administrative assistant, someone to keep everything up and pass it along to him so he could make sure everything was progressing all right without him. It would be nice to have his part time teacher be a former ranger.

Alyssa smiled and nodded and Rocky turned his attention to Cole. "So what time is the agent meeting us?" Rocky questioned. Cole had set up a meeting that afternoon with the man responsible for the lease on the building.

"He couldn't make it out until two." Cole replied. Initially he was going to meet them at twelve-thirty, but that had not worked out as planned.

"Two?" Carri questioned, suppressing a groan. After helping the Novas out two days ago, she was behind on her work and she had a lot to get back to do. She had not expected this little outing to take this long. She sighed and glanced down at her watch, which read slightly past noon. "You guys want to join us for lunch?" she asked as she glanced at the Wild Force rangers.

"Sure." Cole replied with a grin. "I know this great place. Follow me." He said before taking off and gesturing for the others to follow. He walked off quickly, laughing and talking to his dog along the way. Alyssa giggled and quickly moved to catch up with him.

Carri glanced over at Rocky, who shrugged at her in response. He had been exposed to Cole's enthusiasm before; it did not faze him much. Before Carri could say anything, Rocky grabbed her hand and pulled her off to follow Cole.

* * *

Shortly after lunch, Kim found herself riding with Tommy to their real estate agent's office. She had a new crop of homes she wanted to show them on paper to see if they wanted to look at any of them. It was a long process, one they had been working on for a while.

They were being fussy, looking for the perfect home. Tommy wanted something that wasn't bunched in with other homes for future ranger purposes. He was also hoping to have a good-sized basement, but as Kim had pointed out on numerous occasions, they had access to advanced technology, they could build a basement if necessary. Kim wanted something with a decent sized kitchen so that she and Tommy could both be in there at once, and a good room for entertaining. She was also looking for a house with enough space that she could set up a mini office so she could network with her work computer and bring work home on weekends following weeks where she had been interrupted to do things such as rescue the Novas.

One home almost perfectly matched their description. They had put in an offer on it, one that was a bit lower than what the homeowners were looking for. Much to their surprise, they had accepted it. Everything was going great until the inspector went out and came back with reports of termite damage. It wasn't just a little termite damage, it was the kind of damage that made the inspector suggest the house may be better off being torn down and rebuilt. Tommy and Kim retracted their offer later that day.

"I think we'll find it today." Tommy commented, bringing Kim out of her thoughts. He knew they had to find it eventually. It took him a long time before he finally decided that his home in Reefside was the one.

"Our house?" Kim questioned, watching as Tommy nodded his head yes. "I hope so. I'm ready to get out of the apartment." Not that there was anything wrong with their apartment, except it was small and it offered no privacy. There had been a time where Kim was not sure what would have been worse, the neighbors hearing her morph or hearing her having sex.

Tommy chuckled. "Me too." He replied. There had been a time when he thought he would get out of his temporary apartment and move back to Reefside, where he would continue teaching and monitoring rangers from his basement. However, Kim changed all that. Even when he agreed to be a ranger again, he never thought he would get back together with Kim. He thought they were through, that he was done with the heartbreak.

The problem with that was that what he said was not what he felt and eventually his feelings got the best of him. He loved Kim; he always had and always would. Which is why he was happy for her to move in with him and he was happy to stay here with her after the battle against Rhianna ended. He wanted to take her back to Reefside, where his job and his home and his command center were.

In the end, that was never really an option. Kim could not leave Angel Grove. She had an amazing job working for Ashley, and she would not get that kind of opportunity in Reefside. And even though he had a command center at home and they could teleport when needed, Kim was better off living in Angel Grove, near the Command Chamber and the other rangers.

Despite his attachment to his house, he gave it up and let Hayley move in permanently. She was thrilled; she loved playing in his rebuilt command center. Tommy was all right with it, he knew that as long as he had room he could build a basement command center in their new home. This time he would get Billy's help bringing in advanced technology. It was not as if he needed it, he had a perfectly good Command Chamber that Billy created. It was that he wanted it. He missed being able to go do his own ranger related work in his own command center. Even before the Dino Thunder team was formed he hung out down there, keeping himself informed on the activities of the current ranger team and sending the occasional communication to other teams and other reds.

That was not the only thing he was giving up. He was leaving his teaching job at Reefside High. He had not been there for a year thanks to the rangers, and he had spent all his time doing research projects and side work for other companies. That was the kind of thing he did while teaching, but never on a full time basis. He found himself missing teaching, missing Reefside. That high school held many memories. After he officially resigned, and listened to Principal Randall give him grief about it, he was fortunate enough to be able to get a job in another high school that was near and dear to him. He was currently working part time at Angel Grove High, and they were planning to bring him on full time next fall.

Now he found that from where he was a year ago, his entire life had shifted. He would have been more than a little surprised to know that this was how it was going to go when he brought his old team to the Command Chamber last February. However, for the first time in years, he was completely happy. Happy with his status with the rangers, happy with the work he was doing, happy with the town he was in, and happy to spend his weekend's house hunting with Kim.

Kim watched, as Tommy looked lost in his thoughts. It seemed to happen a lot, to both of them. They both had thousands of things bouncing around in their heads. Both of them thought about work and the rangers, despite the fact that they were not active. Both thought about each other, and both thought about Kim's training in her Muirantian abilities, although Tommy's thoughts were more about worrying while Kim's were about where to go next. It was enough to drive a normal person insane. As Tommy pulled into the parking lot, Kim reached over and put her hand on his arm, pulling him back to reality. "Are you ready to do this?" she asked as he pulled the car into the first available parking spot.

Tommy pulled his hand off the wheel and moved his arm, watching as Kim's hand fell down until her fingers met his. "Let's go find ourselves a house." He said, giving her hand a squeeze.

Kim grinned as she let go of his hand before jumping out of the passenger's seat. Before she could make it to the other side of the car, Tommy caught up to her and put an arm around her. He pulled her close, giving her a kiss on the top of the head, before letting her go and opening the door for her. Kim smiled as she entered the office. She had a good feeling that today was going to be their lucky day.

* * *

It was mid afternoon California time when Arius arrived in the Earth's atmosphere. It had taken him a while to gather his forces, along with two of Deimos' top generals, and make the trip out here. He was not taking any chances. He had two Planetary rangers to capture and one Muirantian to convince to join them. Not to say that the task was impossible, but he would not risk anything going wrong.

Arius took a moment to spy on his enemies. The white ranger was in an empty building with four other humans. The humans would pose no threat. Neither would the ones in the office building accompanying the red ranger. The green ranger was in a home, along with two small children and three adults.

He studied the adults for a moment. One of them looked quite familiar. It was not long before he realized why. She was the former princess of evil, who now fought for the side of good. It was a surprise to see her there. Perhaps he could bring her back as well. As evil, she was a loyal servant of Dark Specter's. If they could force her to join them, she would do well under Kaycea and Deimos.

Arius turned toward one of the generals. "Take some Keresecks. Let them frighten away the other humans while you retrieve the white ranger. It should be simple."

He watched as Novak nodded before moving out to do as he was told. As Novak headed down to the surface, he turned toward his second general. "Gather an army as well. The green ranger is your top priority you must bring him back. However if you can manage to bring me the former Astronema, you will be rewarded."

Shax smiled. He could certainly handle one ranger and Astronema. Moving quickly, he grabbed enough Keresecks to suit his needs before taking off. Once both of his generals were gone, Arius grabbed the remaining Keresecks and teleported down to the surface to greet his future empress.

As they hit the pavement, she was walking out of the office with a human male. Arius smiled. This was going to be too easy. "Kaycea!" he yelled out across the parking lot.

Kim turned her head quickly, ignoring Tommy's confused look at the use of that name. Standing in the middle of the parking lot was the Drakonian she had done battle with two days ago and a group of his lackeys, the same ones they weren't sure how to destroy. "My friends call me Kim." She said as she eyed him down. "But since you don't fall into that category, you can just call me the red ranger. Planetary ranger, power up!"

"We'll be friends soon enough." Arius promised. "Now either you come with me or my Keresecks will destroy your little friend here."

"I don't think so." Tommy said as he moved in beside Kim. "Ninjetti, falcon!" he called out as his Ninjetti robes took over. "You don't stand a chance."

"A Ninjetti?" Arius questioned, not able to hide his laughter. "Finish him." He said as he motioned for the Keresecks to attack. They moved in, ignoring Kim and heading straight for Tommy, who immediately started bouncing around Ninjetti style and trying to get good hits in.

Kim glared at him. "Did you chase me down for a rematch?" She asked as she moved closer. He was strong, it was going to be a tough fight but she knew she could do it.

"I came with a business proposition." Arius explained. He grinned as the red ranger's helmet tilted to one side. "You are Muirantian born, only living heir to Dark Specter, only being in the universe able to claim his throne. You shall return with me to meet the creature I work for, your future husband. Once you return the empire will reunite and you two will rule the galaxy together."

Kim snorted. She did not know what this guy was doing but obviously he wasn't the brightest. She certainly had no plans on switching sides ever, despite her demonic legacy. "Not going to happen in this lifetime. Why don't you save yourself some time and go ahead and head on home."

"I wouldn't be so quick to discard me." Arius replied with a chuckle. "As we speak your two ranger friends are being kidnapped. If you ever want to see them alive again you'll come with me."

"They'll never let you take them." Kim snapped. Of course, she did not know what he had thrown at them. She could only hope Billy had his eye on things and was working on a way to help them out even if he had to just teleport them away.

Arius simply shrugged. "Even if somehow they slip past us, you'll still join me and become empress." He said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "The longer you stay here, the more of this planet I destroy. Starting with your Ninjetti friends."

Kim glanced back to see that Jason had joined Tommy in his battle. The two Ninjetti were zipping around but did not appear to be getting anywhere as far as destroying those things went. Kim called for her Fire Saber and turned to look at Arius. "You won't get away with this." She threatened.

"Oh but I already have." He replied. She was fun to battle, and even though she could not win, it would be a good exercise for him. Moving swiftly, he went to engage her in combat.

Across the battlefield, Tommy and Jason were having difficulty with the Keresecks. Neither knew how to defeat them. They could fight them all day, but until they figured out how to destroy them, this battle was never going to end, at least not positively. At the rate they were going, this battle was going to end with their destruction.

Two of them leaped onto Tommy and he barely escaped in a pile of Ninjetti cloth before reappearing behind them, kicking them both. They stumbled forward just as Tommy felt another one grab his shoulders. He gave it a swift elbow but before he could continue, one more kicked him and sent him into the arms of the one he just elbowed, who threw him up in the air.

Tommy landed on the ground with a painful thud. He looked up just in time to see two more of them getting ready to leap on him. He barely rolled out of the way. Standing up, another one rushed him from behind. Tommy turned just in time to grab it by its shoulders. As he did, his thumb landed on the tiny red emblem on the front of the creatures' navy and black uniform.

Much to Tommy's surprise, when his thumb pressed against the emblem, the emblem sank in. The Kereseck he was battling collapsed, its knees hitting the ground and its head falling forward. With the head forward, the top of its neck, right under its headgear was exposed. There was some sort of disk attached there. A disk that was starting to light back up as the Kereseck came back to life.

It stood and started attacking him again with fury. It appeared as though the disk was a power disk, and when he hit the emblem, he figured it was safe to say he accidentally rebooted it. Maybe destroying the disk is the key. The only way to get to the disk was to pull the things head down and smash the disk.

That was easier said than done. Tommy quickly realized that even when he could get behind them, they were not likely to drop their heads down low enough to expose their power disk. Tommy tried to hit it several times with no luck. If he could maneuver correctly he could power one down again and give it a try, but it was going to be hard to get to the emblem and he'd only have a few seconds to hit it before it rebooted.

Tommy ducked an oncoming attack, weaving his way through the small army using several of his Ninjetti tricks to free himself from the bulk of the Keresecks. Once he was on the edge of the battle, one of them came running toward them. He tried several times unsuccessfully to hit the emblem. At one point, he kicked it in the chest, sending it flying to the ground. Tommy leapt on top of it, hitting the emblem just as it threw him aside. Tommy hit the ground just as the thing powered down. Moving quickly, he pushed the head back so he could see the disk and he hit it with all the power he could muster.

Much to his relief, the Kereseck broke into thousands of little pieces, each of the pieces disappearing. Before Tommy could celebrate his revelation, a group of Keresecks attacked him. Tommy turned to fight them. They were difficult opponents, there was no way he was going to be able to face them all and disable them all, at least not as a Ninjetti. He was going to have to do it one at a time with sneaky, planned attacks.

Tommy hit them all quickly, disappearing from battle before they could recover. He quickly pulled his communicator to his mouth. He needed to pass this new revelation along to his friends. Then he could return and try to take out as many of the bastards as possible.

* * *

Carri took a hit from the big ugly that called himself Novak, a hit that sent her flying in the air and had knocked her lance out of her hands. He had snuck to the surface while she was standing in the parking lot of the building that would be Rocky's newest school and grabbed her from behind, attempting to whisk her away. Fortunately for her, Rocky and Cole both jumped him and caused him to let her go.

Novak had invited his warriors to the party, warriors she had seen before that he referenced as Keresecks. Rocky had gone into Ninjetti mode to try to fight them, but when the battle started, he was doing more sneak attacks than actual fighting. Cole and Alyssa had fought as well, but they were not doing well. Alyssa could hardly walk at this point and she was pretty sure Cole's arm was broken. They were tough to battle; they needed full rangers on the scene.

Morphing rangers or no, the three of them had not given up, especially when Billy passed along how to destroy the Keresecks. So far, Rocky had managed to take out two of them. Two was better than nothing but Carri feared that at the rate they were going, the three of them would end up dead before the Kereseck army disappeared.

At the moment, Carri couldn't worry too much about that. She was too busy lying on her back, hurt, as Novak approached her to try to issue a finishing blow. Carri watched as he ran toward her, sword extended. She glanced across the parking lot and spotted her lance. She held out her hand toward her weapon and concentrated. Seconds later, it flew into her hands. "Lightning lance, power up!" She cried out as Novak jumped toward her. Before his sword made contact, she hit him in the gut with her lance.

Novak flew backwards with an electric jolt as he hit the ground. Carri pulled herself to her feet as several of the Keresecks approached her. She fought them off with her lance, electrifying them as she went. One of them she hit hard enough to slow it down. As it turned and wobbled, Carri jammed the tip of her lance up the back of its helmet, watching as it fell to pieces.

Novak stood and saw the one she destroyed, along with the one those supposedly useless humans destroyed. The humans should not be able to fight the Keresecks. He was not surprised the ranger got lucky. Jab a weapon in the right place and you hit the power disk. Someone had to have told them the secret. This group had more ability than Arius gave them credit for. He was afraid of losing more of the Kereseck army. Arius would not be pleased.

The white ranger stared at him and seconds later bolts of lightning flew through the sky, hitting both him and the Keresecks. Neither were damaged, however the Keresecks were knocked off their feet, allowing the Ninjetti to destroy another one. Novak watched as the white ranger charged him, her lance still sparking with electricity. He could not leave without her but he had to let her think she had won. He would disappear for now, and then return once she let her guard down and was not with the others.

Carri jumped to attack Novak, and her lance swung and hit nothing but air. "Huh?" she questioned aloud, turning to see the Keresecks disappear as well. "I'm not quite sure we've won." Carri said. She would not even say they were winning, just getting lucky.

Shaking her head, she ran over toward the others, reaching them in time to grab Alyssa just before she hit the ground. "Let's take these guys to Billy." Carri said as she glanced over toward Rocky.

Rocky nodded in agreement and grabbed Cole's good arm, both of them teleporting to the Command Chamber before powering down. "They were injured helping us fight." Rocky said as Billy came into view.

"Let's get them to the infirmary." Billy said as he moved to help. Quickly they made their way into the other room and got Cole and Alyssa on medical beds. Carri and Rocky took a step back to allow Billy to do his work.

"What's going on?" Carri asked, hoping Billy knew what the fight was all about.

"I'm not sure. Zhane and Kim are both under attack as well." Billy replied. All three attacks had happened almost simultaneously. Once he was alerted he went to view them all. Zhane had Andros and Karone with him fighting and Carri had Rocky, Alyssa and Cole. He thought it best to send Jason to assist Kim and Tommy in their battle although he was not certain what help one more Ninjetti would provide.

Billy sighed as he set the computers up over both of the Wild Force rangers, allowing the computers to start giving them painkillers and analyze their injuries to figure the best course of action. While the computers started running, he turned toward Rocky and Carri. "Follow me." He said as he led them back out into the main room.

Moving quickly, Billy first pulled up Kim's battle on screen. They saw Tommy and Jason fighting the Keresecks with about the same success rate that Rocky had earlier. They also saw Kim battling the same Drakonian from Thursday's battle. "That's the guy who kidnapped the Nova's." Carri said as she glanced toward Rocky and Billy. Billy had not seen him the first time and the Ninjetti's never got a good look at him. "So is this revenge?"

"That would make sense." Billy replied. He specifically targeted Planetary Rangers, and they were the ones that foiled his earlier plans. He supposed they would hear in detail from Kim later. While they were focused on the screen, he flipped the view to Andros and Ashley's house. Much to his surprise, Andros and Karone were unconscious on the floor and the creature that appeared to be in charge was hurdling toward them while Zhane was covered in Keresecks.

"Can you teleport them out?" Carri questioned, preparing to teleport down if he could not. Before the question left her lips, Billy had rushed over to the other console. Seconds later Karone and Andros were safely teleported to the infirmary while the creature hit nothing but air. "What about Ashley and the kids? Are they there? Can you teleport them?"

"I don't know. Their signals where there but they became jumbled shortly after the fight began. I can't tell if they're there or if they're alright." Billy said. He had intended on teleporting the kids out when the fight started but before he could get a lock on them, they disappeared.

Carri turned toward Rocky. "I've got to go help Zhane, find Ashley." She said. It was not a request; she was going to go help them. She knew he was not thrilled with the idea of her running to Zhane's aid, but she knew he was not going to stop her.

Rocky nodded. He was not sure if he liked the idea, but he was not jealous enough to let that stop him. Ashley and her kids' lives were in danger. "I'll help Jason and Tommy." Rocky said. They were obviously overwhelmed with an army much larger than what had attacked Zhane. Two morphed rangers should be able to handle that.

"Let's do this." Carri said as she glanced toward Rocky and grinned. "Planetary ranger, power up!"

"Ninjetti, ape!"

The White Planetary Ranger and Red Ape Ninjetti only stood there for a split second before both of them teleported off to their destinations.

* * *

Ashley sat in her office with her arms around her two small children while the things that attacked them tried hard to get in. They would not be able to, at least she didn't think they would. Her office was what her mother referred to as her panic room. Andros had built a force field generator in that room. If there was trouble, all she had to do was gather the kids, get in there, and hit the button. The force field kept anything from getting in or detecting her in there.

It would be effective for the common criminal, but that was not what Andros had in mind when he made it. He made it to protect his family should anybody in the galaxy ever come after them. He made it for days like today.

Today had started out normally, with the kids favorite Aunt Karone and "Uncle" Zhane coming over to visit. They had all had lunch together and played together until the kids were tuckered out. They were relaxing in the living room when someone teleported down and grabbed Zhane from behind.

Ashley did not hesitate to grab a lamp off the table and smash it over the creatures head. He paused and loosened his grip on Zhane, allowing the Green Terra Ranger the ability to kick him and swivel around. When the creature's goons arrived, Zhane morphed and even Andros and Karone went to help battle them, Andros ordering her to grab the kids and make sure they were protected.

She had no idea how long ago that was. She had been sitting up in the office with the kids for what felt like hours, while listening to the battle below. For a while, she could hear Karone and Andros screaming, but Zhane's was the only voice she had heard lately. She was worried sick about her husband, and she was worried that those things would figure out how to get in.

She watched through the open door as they peered in at her. Suddenly, one lunged oddly toward her, plastering itself against the outside of the force field. It started to slide down but then disintegrated, and standing behind it was the white ranger.

Carri was immediately attacked by two more of the Keresecks. "I really hate these things." She grumbled as she rolled out of the way and kicked one into the other. She could hear the kids cheering her on as she continued the fight. It took her a few minutes and a lot of crafty maneuvering but eventually she destroyed both of them.

"Damn." Carri said as she shook her head. These guys were tough. She found herself oddly missing the Cirranadrones. With a sigh, she glanced over toward Ashley and made note of her situation. "Is Andros into home improvement?" she asked with a chuckle.

"You could say that." Ashley replied with a grin, relieved that Carri had gotten there before something bad happened.

Carri smiled from beneath her helmet before moving on. "Billy I've got Ashley. She is under a force field in her office. Prepare to teleport her up." She looked over toward Ashley and continued. "Just drop this and Billy will teleport you."

"Right." Ashley said quickly. She would feel much better once they were in the Command Chamber. She hit the series of buttons that lowered the force field.

Carri watched as the three streaks of white light disappeared. She heard Ashley start to yell something on her way out, but it was lost. She had a feeling it was something along the lines of "watch out" as a Kereseck fell from above and knocked her backwards hard enough to send her tumbling down the stairs.

"You alright?" Zhane asked, rushing over to her as she hit the bottom with a thud.

"Just peachy." Carri grumbled as she stood up and reached for her fallen lance. "This guy tough?" she questioned as she looked at the monster he was facing.

"You could say that." Zhane replied. He had almost killed Andros and Karone. Zhane thought that at best, they were evenly matched, but in reality, his opponent probably had the advantage.

The Keresecks surrounded their general, one of them knocking over a picture as it did so. Carri shook her head. "Look at all this property damage. Ashley's going to have a fit." She said as she shook her head. Ashley did not even have monster insurance. She was a known power ranger, labeled a high risk and uninsurable. "So do we bill this to you?" she asked as she looked the creature in the eye.

"White ranger, the damage done here is going to be the least of your worries. You will both soon be mine." Shax promised her. This had not been his ranger to capture, but if he could bring them both in it could only help his status in the empire.

"Are there any of these guys that aren't cocky?" Carri asked a hint of amusement in her voice as she turned to Zhane.

"Doubtful." He replied with a chuckle. "Shall we take him down a notch?"

Carri glanced around the house. "Let's play follow the leader." She said. She was not going to let them destroy the house. Whether or not it was a good idea she hadn't decided, but she was going to take them to the rest of the fight. She hooked her arm into Zhane's and teleported them both away.

* * *

Kim continued her fight against the demon that had finally identified herself as Arius. She was holding her own well enough; although she was not sure she could say the same about her Ninjetti teammates. She did not think they were going to make it much longer, which was why she could not have been happier when Zhane and Carri teleported to the scene.

"What were you saying about capturing my friends?" Kim asked, her confidence level starting to soar. They were going to pull through this.

"Sometimes it takes more than one try to succeed." Arius was quick to point out. He did not show it to her, but he was furious. If he did not see his generals down here soon, heads would roll.

"It doesn't look like you're going to get that chance." Kim said with a grin as Carri and Zhane immediately went to work on destroying the Keresecks.

Arius grunted as he went to attack Kim. They fought hand to hand for a few moments before Arius shot a quick burst of power out of his hands, throwing Kim back. As Kim stood, two more figures teleported down to join the party. "Allow me to introduce your future generals, Shax and Novak." He said before glancing back toward them. "Go get those rangers for me. Now."

"The only way I'll ever command them is if they switch sides and fight against you." Kim swore as she ran back at Arius and continued their fight.

Meanwhile, Shax and Novak pulled the rangers they were originally supposed to capture out of their fights, just as more Keresecks teleported to the surface. The Ninjetti's wanted to follow to help the others, but they were quickly becoming overwhelmed. Zhane and Carri had to fight on their own.

"One defeat wasn't good enough?" Carri questioned, standing up after ducking the initial hit Novak tried to get in.

Novak roared with laughter. "Defeat? I'd hardly call that defeat." He replied. "You're the one who's going to be defeated, unless of course you willingly become my prisoner."

Carri snorted. "I suppose there's something to be said for a good sense of humor." She replied as she charged Novak. The battle started full force, with him getting more hits in than she was, much like Zhane's battle that was going on close by.

After a few minutes, the Ninjetti's were still swamped, Kim was still battling Arius and Carri and Zhane were still working hard to try to hold their ground. That didn't work as well as they liked, as both were hit with blasts almost simultaneously, throwing them up in the air and knocking them into each other, their forms falling to the floor with a thud.

"That was too easy." Shax said as he and Novak headed for the rangers. The rangers were not moving quickly, if they were even moving at all. They could hear the protests from the Ninjetti who were unable to get to them.

Carri could feel the world start to come back into focus but everything ached. She was in some sort of weird position and it took her a moment to figure out what had happened. She could hear Novak uttering the words "your mine". She knew she had to stop him. She and Zhane untangled themselves from each other but were moving too slow.

They tried to position to defend themselves but it was not necessary. Two different blades from two different red rangers came flying out of nowhere, knocking Shax and Novak back. "We heard you could use a little help." Eric said as he pulled Carri to her feet.

Carri looked at the two rangers in similar uniforms and tried to pull from her knowledge of the other ranger teams. "Time force?" she questioned.

"Wes, Time Force red, this is Eric, Quantum Ranger." Wes spoke quickly as he gestured to the two of them. They had received a call from Billy saying that his friends desperately needed help in Angel Grove. They had been in the middle of something with the Silver Guardians at the time, but that was not an emergency and they both disappeared to lend their fellow rangers a quick hand.

Zhane nodded as Shax headed back. "I think we'll have to finish the introductions later." Zhane said before running to intercept Shax, watching as Wes turned and followed him.

Carri took a deep breath and pushed the body aches out of her mind. "Let's do this." She said, glancing over to Eric who nodded. The two of them rushed off and started their battle against Shax.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Rocky let out a sigh of relief. He was thrilled that Wes and Eric had made it down to help in time. Of course, they needed help too, but Carri and Zhane needed it more. They were still overwhelmed with the Keresecks. It did not take long before enough of them covered him and he was unable to see any of the other battles, he couldn't even keep an eye on Jason and Tommy anymore.

Using his Ninjetti abilities, he maneuvered out of the pile and found himself back to back with Jason. "These damn things keep coming." Jason grumbled. He was trying to have a nice date with Emily that afternoon but that was now all but ruined. He had no idea how long he had been out here fighting and it felt like they were not making any difference.

"Yes and." Rocky stopped short as several of the Keresecks were flung from their view. Standing behind him were the red and yellow Lightspeed Rescue rangers. "Carter!" Rocky exclaimed in surprise. Billy must have been pulling out all the stops.

"Man are we glad to see you." Jason said before kicking an oncoming Kereseck.

"Sorry we're late." Carter apologized. Billy had asked for his help earlier. It had taken him a while to pull the other members of Lightspeed out of their jobs and get everybody ready to help. Not that they minded helping, but some of them could drop what they were doing easier than others.

Jason chuckled. "I'd say you're just in time." He replied as he and Rocky went to attack full force. He saw a glimpse of the remaining members of the Lightspeed team fighting around them. They were having an easier time fighting against the Keresecks than the Ninjetti although it was still difficult.

The battle raged on all around the rangers. They were fighting hard, and with the backup, they found they were now having mild levels of success. The Keresecks were decreasing in numbers, and the bad guys had all been too focused to summon more. Kim was still fighting hard against Arius, and Carri, Zhane, Wes and Eric were doing well enough against Shax and Novak.

Fifteen minutes later, the fight was finally starting to dwindle. The Keresecks were low enough in number that the Ninjetti were able to split off, Rocky going to join Carri, Jason with Zhane and Tommy to Kim. Ten more minutes went by and all of the Keresecks had been destroyed. The Lightspeed rangers split up and joined the others.

The team of five Carri led and the team of five Zhane led, with the help of their two red rangers in Battle Armor, were able to push Shax and Novak back until they tumbled toward Arius, before quickly moving to stand up beside him. The rangers moved to stand in with their other teammates, the three Planetary rangers and Tommy standing in the front.

"You've lost." Kim said as she powered down her weapon, the flames disappearing from her sword. "Take your flunkies and leave my planet."

"Leave?" Arius questioned in an amused voice. "Oh no, I have no intention of leaving." He would back off for the moment to allow the other rangers to disappear. He had another supply of Keresecks nearby. Another member of their army followed them as a backup, just in case. He decided he would retrieve the army and the alien in charge of them, and return. "Don't worry Kaycea. I'll be back for you and your friends shortly."

With that he disappeared, his generals' right behind him. Kim made a frustrated sound. This was not close to over and she knew it. With a sigh, she teleported up, her former teammates following as Billy teleported the remainder.

* * *

Billy stood in the Command Chamber with Ashley, her kids, and the four former rangers he had healed as a mass of multicolored streaks came flying in. He had been lucky that he was able to round so many rangers up for assistance. He had contacted every team that still had active morphers, practically begging for them to come help. There weren't many rangers that could get to them in time, and he was grateful to have had the assistance of one full team and two reds with Battle Armor.

"Thank you all for helping us." Kim spoke, directing her comments toward the Lightspeed team and the Silver Guardians. Billy must have worked miracles to get them here this fast. "I know you all have lives you're trying to lead and we appreciate you taking time out of those for us."

"Anytime you need help don't hesitate to call." Carter replied. And he meant it. Although his team all had full time jobs, they were still rangers and would still help out if called upon.

Wes nodded in agreement with Carter before giving a small salute. "Silver Guardians, at your service." He said with a smile. His father was not thrilled with the rare occasion that he and Eric left Silver Hills, the town that paid them, and jetted off on ranger related missions, but they were rangers first.

"So what did that guy want?" Eric asked as he glanced toward the senior rangers in the room. "And who is this Kaycea?"

"Intergalacticly, I'm Kaycea. It's a name given to me several years ago that indicates the master warrior who trained me." Kim quickly answered his second question. It certainly was the easier of the two.

"Dulcea?" Tommy asked, watching as Kim nodded. He should not be surprised; it was one of the names K went by. Like it or not, it seemed as though Kim's existence was similar to the little he knew about K.

"So then what did our Drakonian friend want?" Carri questioned, repeating Eric's first question. She saw the glance between Tommy and Kim. She had a feeling it was because Kim never mentioned the name Kaycea to him before. That was something they could work out on their own time, when there was not someone coming back to kill them.

"Me." Kim said with a sigh as all the rangers eyes were suddenly on her. "I don't know who is aware of this fact, but last year, during a mission to assist another team in an alternate universe, the demon Kemora threw me into the pit on Muirantias."

Kim paused for a moment, noticing Karone standing straight up and crossing her arms over her chest. "I was lucky to survive, but everything for me changed beyond that point. My DNA became altered, turning demonic in nature. There are some that now reference me as the daughter of Maligore."

"They want to reform the empire." Karone said suddenly as she looked at Kim, eye's wide. She had heard of Kim's trip to the pit, knew she was Muirantian born and Maligore's heir, but the thought had not occurred to her that someone would put the pieces together and be bold enough to try anything.

Karone noticed all the others staring at her and she continued. "She's Dark Specter's heir. She is the only being in the universe that would have enough pull to bring the evil empire back together. If they reunite…" Karone let her voice trail off. She had heard of people trying to reunite the empire for years but no one had a claim to the throne. Once Dark Specter was gone and she was no longer Astronema, there was no one left that the evil realm thought had enough authority to lead them.

"Trust me the last thing I plan on doing is becoming the empress of evil. The ramifications of me embracing my demonic heritage are worse than most people in this room can imagine." Kim assured her. The worst-case scenario was not her reforming the evil empire and leading it as the empress. The worst-case scenario was her embracing who she could be. Should she become evil the DG could have another Kemora hopping across dimensions. One was hard enough to control. Two… well with two she doubted that even the DG would be able to fix the damage they caused.

"So then how do we make quick work of this guy?" Kelsey asked.

"I don't know. I don't think this is going to be quick. We just threw eleven morphed rangers and three Ninjettis at him and he was more amused than anything." Kim replied. She wished it would be quick, that would be nice. However, from what he said at the onset, he would be here as long as it took to get her. "He wants to kidnap the Planetary team to get me to come with him. If that doesn't work he's going to destroy Earth bit by bit until I give in."

Carri snorted. "Lovely." She got to be a target without even trying. Although she supposed rescuing the Nova's counted. She sighed and shook her head. "I agree that we didn't faze him. We have to do something that's going to get his attention."

"We need to pull together a team. He's not going to get scared away easily; there may be more than one battle in this." Tommy quickly pointed out. He started running through his head the list of available morphers. Unfortunately, there were not any ones coming to mind that he thought would work for this.

"What are we going to morph with?" Jason questioned, voicing Tommy's concerns aloud. "We can't use our coins, our Zeo crystal… we'd have to find a team with powers, powers strong enough to beat this guy since fourteen rangers didn't cut it, and hope they let us use them." By us, he meant the five of them that were rangers together a few months ago. He assumed that if they were putting together a team, they were all up for it.

"You're right." Kim agreed. They had to do something. There were powers out there that were strong, but she did not know which of the ones that were fully functional were strong enough. Except one. "The Planetary powers are probably our best shot."

"But those powers choose you, not the other way around." Zhane was quick to point out. There was no guarantee that the powers would pick those who were willing to be rangers.

"I'd do it." Dana said as everyone glanced back at her. She had a full time career as a pediatrician, but if the powers chose her she would not neglect the calling. She couldn't; the fate of the world, of the universe was at stake. "If I was chosen, I'd be willing to leave the quiet life to help."

"Me too." Cole chimed in as he stepped forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alyssa move up beside him and start vigorously nodding. After Alyssa's agreement, one by one the other rangers in the room echoed their sentiments.

"Ok." Kim said as she glanced around the room. There was something to be said about the phrase "once a ranger". Zordon would have been proud. Of course, there was no guarantee the powers would pick from this group of former rangers, or pick former rangers at all for that matter. The only way to solve that was to get all the former rangers together. Kim turned directly toward Tommy and continued. "I'm going to go speak to Dulcea and grab the rest of the Planetary morphers. We need to get every ranger that has ever served down in the conference room. Hopefully the powers will choose from us."

Tommy nodded toward his girlfriend. He assumed they would not have a huge window of time before she returned. However, he should have plenty of time to contact the others. Over the years, he had kept track of their locations. "On it." He said simply as Kim disappeared. The red light faded from view and he turned toward the others. Hopefully by the end of the day they'd have a fully functioning Planetary team.

* * *

It did not take long before essentially every ranger that ever protected Earth was standing in the conference room located under the Command Chamber that Billy created. The teams had initially greeted their former teammates before mostly branching off and saying hello to the other rangers they knew. The major exception was the Dino Thunder team, who was huddled together at the front of the room and appeared to be getting a lecture from their former teacher.

Carri caught Tommy out of the corner of her eye and chuckled. She still had trouble envisioning him as Dr. Oliver, science teacher. She did not know what he wanted to do after he got his bachelors, but given his forgetful tendencies and his trouble making anything on time, teacher was the last thing on the list. She wondered if he would let them go soon as several members of the Ninja Storm team appeared to be trying to have a word with some of Tommy's kids.

"Right Carri?" Rocky's words suddenly brought the white ranger back into the conversation she was supposed to be in the middle of.

Carri glanced over toward Rocky, then her eyes darted until they met Jason's. Jason was well aware that she was not paying attention and a Cheshire cat like grin spread across his face. The last time Carri agreed with something Rocky was asking without knowing what she was agreeing to, she found herself engaged.

"Um," Carri paused, smiling at the three rangers that had joined them. They were chatting with Wes and Eric, who knew Jason and Rocky and were the only two rangers without their full team here, along with Eric's girlfriend Taylor. Before Carri was forced to give an answer, a hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around.

A look of relief washed over Carri's face, one that only Jason and Zhane caught. Jason snorted while Zhane looked at her oddly. He tried to ignore it as he spoke. "Maybe we should get this thing started?" he suggested. He and Carri were the only ones who were active Planetary Rangers. Seeing as how this was about their team, Andros pointed out and he agreed that this meeting was their responsibility. "Kim should be back any minute." He added.

Carri glanced down at her watch. Kim had been gone almost a half an hour. Usually she was pretty good about bending time to where her disappearance was hardly noticed. Unless she was gone for a bit longer than expected. "Sure." She said with a sigh.

Carri trotted up to the small stage with Zhane right behind her. She reached the podium and looked out over all the chatting rangers. "Ok guys." She yelled out across the room to get everyone's attention. "If you guys want to have a seat, we'll get started."

Zhane and Carri watched as most of the group silenced and sat. Of course, most of the group did not know her aside from the fact that she was a more senior ranger than they were. Tommy on the other hand knew her, and ignored her and continued to talk to his group. Carri glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest. "Dr. Oliver." She said sternly, watching as he snapped his head up. "This includes you too."

The former Dino Thunder team tried not to snicker but there were plenty of amused sounds coming from the group that went to high school with Tommy. Tommy, however, was not amused. He watched as the rest of his former team took their seats before speaking. "I'm sorry. Did you want me to go ahead and get this thing started? Or are we waiting for your red?" He asked, the corners of his mouth twitching into a smile as she huffed.

Carri was well aware that Tommy was much more qualified to lead this meeting than either she or Zhane was. Practically everyone in this room looked up to him while most of them only had a vague idea who she and Zhane were. She knew several of the other teams considered Tommy to be the greatest red ranger ever. Perhaps he would be best at gaining their undivided attention. She was trying to figure out a way to get him up on the stage while making it look intentional but she never got the chance.

"Carri's just following orders." Kim said as she walked over toward them. She had arrived just in time to hear the conversation between the two. As she walked past Tommy she grinned at him. She knew there were several ways she could have jumped into the conversation but she had decided to side with Carri.

Box of morphers in hand, Kim headed toward the podium and began speaking. "Thank you, Carri, for getting everyone settled for me."

"But of course." Carri replied. She had yet to decide if she had won or lost her little exchange with Tommy.

Kim took a deep breath, pulling herself into serious mode as she prepared to face the group of rangers. There were more here than the last time she had done this. Last time there were several different teams missing rangers and the Overdrive team had not even existed yet. She looked over at the sea of rangers, thrilled that everyone had shown up.

"As some of you may have noticed, there was some… commotion in Angel Grove today." Kim started her speech. "Between three partial teams and one full team, we managed to stop the oncoming attack. However, I am afraid that the attacks will not cease until the enemy is destroyed. They've been quite clear that they'll destroy Earth if they don't get what they want." Kim paused, not sure how many details about herself she was giving out.

When she did not automatically continue, one of the rangers spoke up from the back. "So what do they want?" Vida questioned.

Kim sighed. This was a room full of former rangers, why she thought she could get away with being vague she did not know. "Me, or rather my demonic birth right. My trip to the Muirantian pit left me as Dark Specter's only legitimate heir. They want me to reform the evil empire and rule as empress." She had left out quite a few of the details but they should get the gist.

"So you need us to fight to protect you?" Hunter questioned. It almost did not make sense to him. He did not understand why they should put the Earth at risk to keep one ranger from becoming an evil empress. They could always let her go and chase her into space, making a plan to save her.

"This battle is about more than just me." She would willingly give herself up if it meant keeping the people and the planet safe. "If the empire reunites, that means that creatures just like all those that we've faced, the Lothor's, the Trakeena's, the Rita and Zedd's, will all come together and work together. The entire universe, including Earth, was almost conquered that way once before. On top of that, those of you who have fought Kemora before know that if I'm evil I'll be practically unstoppable, working to destroy this and countless other Earth's."

"So then what, you want us all to suit up again?" Taylor agreed that they could not just give Kim up. If they needed her, she knew she would give up everything again to be a ranger.

"We want to form a team out of the Planetary morphers." Kim quickly explained. "The problem with them is that they choose you, not the other way around." She had spent a lot of time talking to Dulcea and researching while she was gone, trying to figure out the reason for the morphers choices. So far, she had not come up with anything.

"Like our Dino gems?" Conner piped up before Kim could continue. Tommy shot him a stern look for interrupting Kim, and Conner gave his best apologetic look while Kim smiled and moved on.

"Yes, like the Dino gems." Kim said. It was amusing to watch Tommy the teacher in action. She knew the stern no nonsense ranger side of him that the others followed, but she had yet to see the stern teacher side of him. "We asked you all here because we do not know who the morphers will pick. We were hoping that all of you would be willing to try," Kim paused as she opened the box, "and that you will fight with us if selected."

While not everybody replied, there was a chorus of "yes's" heard throughout. Kim nodded and stepped aside. "Feel free to come up here whenever you're ready."

The Dino Thunder team was the first to jump up and head for the box, Tommy following behind them. Tommy's former students went first, and the morphers had no reaction to any of them. However when Tommy stepped up there was a reaction. Tommy reached out, snapped the morpher on his wrist, and was transformed into the Silver Solar Ranger, in control of light and solar energy, his uniform dark silver with dark green on the arms and chest.

"Of course technocolored Tommy would get another new ranger color." Carri said as she rolled her eyes before grinning.

"So Dr. O, does this mean you need another new wardrobe?" Kira asked as she looked over toward him and smirked.

"Nah." Tommy said as he pointed to the arms. "I think I still have some green in my closet."

"Not that dark." Kim commented as Tommy powered down and stepped aside to join his new teammates. She grinned, pleased that her boyfriend was getting to fight, before turning to watch the Ninja Storm team try their luck.

After they came up empty handed, several other teams tried, however none of them got selected. It was not until Jason and Rocky approached with the Silver Guardians that there were more rangers chosen. Jason went first, and was immediately chosen as the Black Metallic Ranger, controlling the planets metal elements, while Rocky was chosen as the Blue Water Ranger, with water being his element. Their uniforms were similar to Kim and Zhane's, with their primary ranger colors and white.

Kim looked at Carri in surprise. She had not expected that their old team was all going to get selected. She couldn't decide if it was going to be easier or more difficult to figure out what the selection criteria for rangers was. Kim glanced at the lone pink morpher inside the box. Fortunately the only rangers left were three females, all three being rangers from their era.

Aisha grinned at the newly forming team as she took her shot, once again coming up empty. Tanya followed behind her, and she did not have any luck either. Kat was the last ranger to go and she was reluctant to step up to the plate. There was only one morpher left and it was pink. The others selected were mostly rangers she had worked with. She was slightly panicked about the morpher selecting her. She came because it was her duty, but still she had a baby at home that needed her. She could not suit up full time again. She hoped that if they chose her, she could pass them on.

Taking a deep breath Kat walked up to the box. When the pink morpher did not react, she felt relieved. If it came down to it, if there was no other option, she would have had to do it. However, she was more than a little happy that she did not have to worry about it.

"So what does that mean?" Carri asked, raising an eyebrow as she glanced over at Kim.

"I don't know." Kim replied with a frown. They needed their full set of rangers in order to be able to access their full range of powers. She was going to have to do some serious research as to what gained a person access to the Planetary Powers.

With a sigh, Kim turned to address the room, where most of the rangers had gone back to their quiet conversations. Before she could say anything, Billy ran up to them from out of nowhere. "Sorry to interrupt, but Arius is back and he's brought friends."

Kim nodded as she turned toward the room. "We'll be right back." She said with a smile before turning toward her new team. Now was a good a time as any to test out what they had. She just hoped that they would be ok without the pink ranger. "Let's do this." She said, watching as they nodded.

Kim then moved to the front and center of the pack, the veteran Planetary Rangers moving into formation beside her, and the newer rangers following suite. Kim quickly crossed her arms over her chest. "Planetary rangers," she called out, thrusting her arms forward and twisting her wrist as her circular morpher with a silver surface, silver grid lines and a symbol in the middle, appeared on her left wrist. "Power up!" she finished, pulling her arms back in to their original position.

With her arms still crossed she took her right hand and pressed the two sides of the morpher in simultaneously, causing the symbol in the middle, the red flame, to light up, knowing that the rest of their team was doing the same with the ranger symbols on their morphers. Pressing the lit symbol on their morphers brought them into the morphing plane, where they were thrust into the air and taken over by their Planetary forms. Seconds later, six Planetary Rangers stood in front of the room of retirees. Before anyone had the opportunity to take their new uniforms in, they teleported off in streaks of multicolored light to face their upcoming battle with Arius.


	4. Return of the Rangers: Part Two

**Disclaimer:** All known Power Ranger characters belong to Disney. Any reference to the Nova's, K, K's world or the name Kaycea are creations of KSuzie's and those belong to her. All other characters belong to me and cannot be used without my permission.  
**Authors Notes:** A huge thank you goes out to KSuzie for helping me with one of the scenes in this fic.

Dark Inheritance  
"Return of the Rangers"  
Part Two

Arius stood out on the battlefield with his small army. He had brought his two generals back down with him, making them first pay for their defeats and promise results. He was not going to allow them to fail him again. He also brought another group of Keresecks, and Gachnok, a member of Deimos's army that had been in charge of the ship that transported the Keresecks.

He watched as streaks of multicolored light flew through the air and landed in front of him. As they materialized, he quickly realized that the Planetary team had gone from three to six. That would certainly complicate things but not make them impossible. The odds were in his favor that the new rangers did not know their powers as well and would be easier to defeat.

"I told you I'd be back for you." Arius said as he flashed Kim a smile, intentionally leaving out any mention of her new teammates.

"You can come back as many times as you'd like. The results will be the same." Kim promised him. "You will lose." Even if they had to bring every ranger on the planet into this battle, she added silently.

Arius studied the team carefully. It suddenly occurred to him that they were one ranger short. They still did not have a full team of rangers. They would not be able to use their full range of powers against him. "Doubtful." He replied as he gestured for his team to move in.

Kim watched as his three sidekicks came running toward them, accompanied by Keresecks. She called on her Fire Saber and moved past the incoming wave, heading straight for Arius. She was going to end this and she was going to do it now.

Carri watched as Kim ran off to start her own battle. She glanced over toward Zhane, who nodded. "Lightning lance!" she called out, almost simultaneously with Zhane's "Terra axe!" Carri did not take her eyes off Novak as she spoke to the others. "You boys want to give this a try?" she asked before she and Zhane departed to fight the two generals.

"Let's see what these powers can do." Tommy replied. He took a moment to get a good feel for his new powers, to seek out for the weapon he was looking for. Allowing the power to fully connect with him, he knew what he had to do. "Solar daggers!" Tommy said as the pair of twin daggers fell into his hands.

"Metallic mace!" Jason called for his own power weapon. As it fell into his hands, he smiled. The end of it looked like it was going to rip these guys to shreds.

Rocky was the last of the new rangers to call for a weapon. "Water staff!" he spoke as the weapon appeared out of thin air. He wasted no time running and joining the fight, eager to see exactly what this thing could do.

The three new rangers were finding this battle much easier than the one they previously fought with Arius's forces. The Keresecks were still a pain in the ass, but since they had full morphing powers they were finding it easier to reboot them and get to their power disks. For Tommy, who had a sharp tipped weapon like Carri, disabling them was even easier. If he could get the right angle, he could jab a dagger behind their helmets and break the disks that way.

Despite the fact that the Keresecks were easier to face, they were still working them hard plus they still had the two generals and their third reject friend to deal with. Because they kept getting caught up with the Keresecks, Carri and Zhane were having difficulty getting anywhere in their battles against Novak and Shax. Carri took a hard blow from Novak, who appeared out of nowhere. "That. Hurt." She said with a growl as she stood and held her lance high into the air. "Lightning lance, power up!" she yelled, immediately using it to turn and zap Novak back.

Upon seeing her demonstration of power, the other rangers immediately followed suit. Zhane knew how to work his powered up weapon well, but for the rest of the team it was a learning experience. Jason was pleased when the staff of his mace covered itself in a hard metal, while the spikes sticking out of the ball on the end grew longer and sharper, creating a weapon that could do more damage than before. The drawback, he quickly realized, was that he could not move it as fluidly. The heavy metal that took over his mace when he powered it up also weighed it down. What his attacks lost in efficiency, they gained in effectiveness.

Tommy immediately noticed the changes to his weapons as well. The metallic ends of his daggers brightened up once they became powered up. As he used them to hit his opponents, they unleashed solar energy blasts, which not only were painful but also temporarily blinded his opponents. It was easier to work on the Keresecks once their vision sensors were temporarily scrambled.

Rocky was initially at a loss as there were no physical changes to his staff, and he could not hit the ground or hit his opponent and see the effects as Zhane and Carri could. He found himself getting tossed aside by Shax, who he was trying to take a shot at, and thrown into the middle of more Keresecks. He looked at them and took his staff, twirling it once in his hands in a circle. It was then he realized what his weapon could do. That circle created a water blast inside of it, and using his staff, he was able to push it toward the Keresecks, hitting them with a powerful wave of water and sending them tumbling over.

The fact that they were rather easily picking up on their new powers pleased Kim. She had not been able to follow what was going on too much, but she had seen the assorted attacks coming from this others. This team worked. They could hold their own during what was bound to be a long and difficult series of battles.

She did not have much time to think about their future and how many battles lay ahead as Arius tried to go after her with a magic based attack, one she used her own powers to absorb and disintegrate using a basic defense technique she learned from Mystic Mother.

Arius grunted. She was stronger than he initially thought. He didn't like it. He had an entire arsenal of attacks locked away in his mind along with devious ways to win that he was going to have to sort through in order to beat her. He caught Gachnok out of the corner of his eyes. The rangers had not assigned anyone the task of defeating him; they were simply paying him attention when they had a free moment.

Perhaps that would be their downfall. He watched as the alien's arms switched from hands to giant powerful cannons. He smiled to himself. Gachnok had many resources and a lot of powerful attacks at his disposal. He was quite strong, just not smart, which is why he would never move up any farther in the ranks than he already was. As Gachnok prepared to fire, Arius made eye contact with him and nodded toward Kim.

Before Kim knew what was going on, she got thrown across the battlefield by a series of cannon shots. She did not even get the chance to stand as other rangers got thrown down near her. One by one, her team was getting hit and thrown aside. The blasts were not ending, and they were not getting a chance to regroup.

Each of the rangers tried to stop him with whatever they had quick access to. Lightning strikes, ground shaking, solar blasts, they all tried to the best of their abilities. However, none of their quick attacks did anything more than slow him down. Once he slowed, they would all stand and jump toward him with their weapons, but before they got close, he would recover and shoot them back again.

Kim cringed as she hit the ground yet again. They needed something they could use from back here. The team may not be able to stun him and get close to him before he recovered, but if they had a cannon or a way to combine their weapons, they could stun him then quickly move to blast him down without ever having to worry about trying to get close enough to hit him. All these things were well within the realm of possibility, but not without a pink ranger. They needed all seven morphers active to be able to access all the combined powers they had.

The rangers continued to get blasted back as Arius, Novak, Shax and the remainder of the Keresecks regrouped and watched the rangers fall time and time again. "Don't kill Kaycea." Arius called out to Gachnok. "And try to leave at least one prisoner." Gachnok being here was working out better than he thought. He just hoped he would not screw this up.

As Arius started contemplating their imminent victory, two flashes of red flew in between his group and Gachnok. Before he had a chance to process what was happening, the two red rangers in their battle armor hit Gachnok with everything they had. As Gachnok hit the ground, getting destroyed in a puff of flames, Arius frowned. He was not the most capable alien in the universe, and there were plenty more out there with special abilities just like him. However, he thought he was going to be the one to take care of his ranger problem.

"We heard you could use a hand." Wes called out to the other rangers. Billy came running back into their meeting room, asking if anyone would assist, as without a pink ranger they did not have the arsenal needed to stop Gachnok. Wes and Eric morphed without question and immediately donned their battle armor to join them.

"You will regret that decision." Aruis snarled from behind them.

Wes and Eric spun around as the remaining rangers ran to join them. "Come on guys, let's finish them." Kim said as she gripped her saber tightly and ran back into the fight.

Nearly ten minutes later, all the Keresecks were gone and Novak and Shax were tired of dodging battle armor attacks. Arius was not having any luck either against the three original Planetary rangers. This had not gone as well as he had hoped. He had no choice but to regroup and try again. Deimos was not going to be pleased.

He took a step back and watched as Novak and Shax moved to join him. The eight rangers facing him looked prepared to hit them with everything at their disposal. Arius was not one to run from a fight but it was obvious that this battle was not going to end the way he had thought. "Until we meet again Kaycea." He said as they teleported away seconds before the rangers blasted him.

Kim frowned. They managed to send him away a second time, but this was far from over. "Come on guys, let's get back." She said teleporting out as the others quickly followed her.

* * *

It took a half an hour after the battle for the rangers to make it out of the Command Chamber. Kim had taken some time to thank everyone who showed up to try for the Planetary powers. Afterward, she met with the two Silver Guardians to give them a more personal thank you. Wes and Eric volunteered their future services before leaving to go get some work done.

Then the rangers had spoken with each other briefly. There was not much to say. Most of them had worked together before. They all knew how to be rangers and they were all, for the most part, fully aware of the battle in front of them and the consequences should they fail.

It had been a long afternoon for the ranger team. Their brief meeting ended with Kim encouraging everyone to go about life until Arius attacked again. Once they started breaking up, Rocky and Carri teleported back to Turtle Cove for his car, Jason left to do some work, and Kim took Zhane to get his own communicator, leaving Tommy alone with the remaining rangers in the room.

By that point, the only team left in the room was his Dino Thunder team, who had been waiting to pepper Tommy with questions. They had seen the uniforms and thought the team was awesome. They had also been quick to note that it was essentially the same team he had worked with for years. After they finished asking about the new powers, they immediately wanted to know if they could meet the rest of the new rangers.

The last time they came together for a ranger meeting, Tommy had not really introduced them to any of his former teammates. Most of them he had not talked to in years and his situation with Kim was another story entirely. This time he caved, and agreed to let the kids stay long enough for a late dinner at Bulkmeier's before making them teleport home.

That was why Tommy and Kim were currently sitting at one end of a long table in the restaurant, waiting for a few more rangers while the others questioned Kim. Most of the questions had been vague references to her career as a ranger, but a few of them were relationship questions. Although all of the questions had been rather mild, he still found himself putting his foot down about them trying to worm information about their relationship out of Kim. He was still, at one point, their science teacher.

As Kira asked Kim if he actually had some sort of life outside of rangers and work, two loud voices broke through the crowd. Tommy looked up to see Jason, Carri, and Rocky approaching. "It's about time." he grumbled as he waved his hand and got their attention.

"Hey guys." Carri said as they approached. She watched as Tommy gave her a look. "Sorry we're running behind. It took longer to get back from Turtle Cove than we expected." She said before briefly glancing toward Jason. "This one, however, is just late."

"So sue me." Jason said with a shrug. He had a legitimate reason that he had no plans on sharing with the others. His publisher had called unexpectedly for a discussion on the progress of his new book. They had rounds of readings, edits, and if it is anything like his last book, rewrites, to go before it was published. He was calling to make sure that Jason thought they were still on track for the desired summer release.

He was pretty sure the summer release was still a go. After all, he had gotten a good percentage of the book finished. The biggest hold up at the moment was him waiting to see if there was going to be any more drama between his friends. He had the action and science fiction ends down. However, he could always use more drama.

Tommy stood and his former team followed suit. "Guys, meet Jason, Rocky and Carri." Tommy spoke quickly before turning toward the Dino Thunder team. "And this is Kira, Ethan, Trent and Conner."

After the appropriate pleasantries were exchanged, all of the rangers sat down. Kira was the first one to say something to the three newcomers. "Sorry I wasn't any help in the pink department."

"No worries." Carri said before grinning mischievously. "I don't think us yellows are any good at being a pink anyway."

Kim snorted. That was the truth. Carri was not suited for pink, at least not in coin form, from what she learned about pink coins from Ninjor. She had not researched the Planetary powers yet, there hadn't been a specific need to. With the little bit she knew, she was fairly certain they bonded with their rangers differently than coins did. Regardless of how they worked, she could never see the pink morpher choosing Carri. If it had, she would have burst out laughing. What she knew about Kira indicated that she was more suited to yellow rather than pink as well.

"So," Rocky started, moving in to ask the kids a question before they could start drilling them with their own, "how have things been going since you left Tommy's care?"

"Him being your teacher didn't scar you for life did it?" Jason chimed in; ignoring the deadly look Tommy gave him. He had to ask the question.

The kids made a face. It was still weird to hear them call Dr. O by his first name. Ethan was the first to shrug it off and answer the question. "Dr. O was a great science teacher. It was the other stuff that, you know, changed us." he replied. He loved his ranger days, but that was, without a doubt, the one thing about high school that was not normal. That and the evil principal. "But, you know, it wasn't bad. Nothing ruined us for life. I'm so not ruined that I'm graduating with my bachelors in computer engineering this spring." He had gone to Reefside Tech to get his associates and had decided he did not want to stop there. Thanks to glowing reviews from two college professors and one high school teacher, he had gotten into Stanford and was able to continue for his bachelors degree.

"Ethan that's great." Kim congratulated him. Tommy had told her that his blue ranger was into computers. She was not surprised that he was graduating. "What about the rest of you guys? Graduating soon?"

"I already graduated from art school." Trent replied, watching as Kira glanced over at him. He smiled at her. Ever since high school, they had been on again, off again. This was one of their off again phases. He had a feeling it would be on again soon. That was what usually happened when they ran into each other. He tried to ignore Kira as he went back to talking toward the others. "I'm almost done with my graphic novel."

Kira started speaking when he was finished, hoping that by discussing her career, or lack thereof, she would be able to not focus on Trent. "I didn't do the college thing. I went to New York, trying to start my singing career. Since graduation, it has been mostly commercial jingles. However, I just finished putting a CD together. I just have to get someone to listen to it."

Carri crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the silver ranger. "Tommy Oliver." She snapped. He looked at her as though he was going to go off on her no matter what she said. "You've got a former student, one of us, trying to get her CD out and you haven't put her in touch with Tanya?" Although years in space kept Carri from listening to most of Tanya's music, she knew she had three very successful albums out and was working on a fourth.

"This is the first I'm hearing about a CD." Tommy spoke quickly in his own defense. Last, he heard from Kira, she had something in progress. The way she was talking, there was no need for Tommy get her in with Tanya because she had her own way in. "I will give you Tanya's number. She'll get your album to someone."

"Thanks Dr. O that's awesome." Kira replied with a grin. Once upon a time, she thought she had a way in. However, the slimy bastard that was helping her turned out to be nothing more than a cheat and a liar.

When nobody else said anything, Rocky spoke up. "What about you Conner?" he questioned after deciding the former red ranger was not going to offer up any information on his own.

"I've got a few soccer camps around California." Conner said proudly. He was quite pleased with his accomplishments. He had opened up one every year since graduation, and this past year he opened up two. They were really doing well and everyone seemed to be enjoying them. "I'm hoping next year to branch out of California, maybe start spreading east." Putting Conner McKnight soccer camps around the country was his dream. He knew it was going to be a challenge, but if being a ranger taught him one thing, it was that anything is possible.

The older rangers nodded, quite impressed. For their young ages, they were doing quite well for themselves. They supposed that being a ranger in high school tended to make a person grow up quickly. Their generation had all gone through college and for the most part, done really well.

Kira leaned forward on the table and glanced at her teacher's current teammates. It was their turn to ask questions. She supposed questions about their lives were more appropriate to start with, but there was one question she had to ask first. "So, what was Dr. O like in high school?"

The rangers exchanged glances and sly looks. They all had a good Tommy story or two to tell. Tommy watched as Kim made eye contact with Jason and giggled. There was no way he could let this go on all night. He turned and immediately went to flag down their server. It was time to get this show on the road before they filled the next few hours with embarrassing Tommy stories. He was beginning to wonder if this dinner was such a good idea after all.

* * *

Late that night, Arius paced around on his ship. Deimos had reamed him when he opened up communication to him. He had contemplated reporting to him in person, but he did not want to leave Earth's orbit, as he was not close to through with them yet. It was for the best. To say that Deimos was not pleased would be an understatement. He was not quite sure Deimos would let him walk away unscathed had he seen him in person.

Deimos had ordered him to stay near Earth until his task was complete. He was furious that Kaycea still roamed free, and furious that more Planetary rangers had surfaced. He understood that the task was more difficult than expected, but that did not mean he was willing to listen to any excuses. Deimos said that he had thought Arius was his best, and that as his best he should have been able to adjust to the new information and complete the task.

This was his second failure as of late. If he did not return with Deimos's new bride soon, he would be removed from his ranks and fed to his pet slogots. Arius shuddered at the thought. To spend a thousand years getting digested by giant, hideous, space worms was not what he saw in his future.

Deimos promised that his entire army would be at Arius's disposal. The acquisition of Kaycea would move him into the position of emperor, which has been his goal all along. If destroying her friends was all that stood in his way, he would divert all of his resources to the task.

Arius had already used his free pass to call for one of the largest ships in their possession. This ship was not like the others. It was not meant for fast travel or battle, like every other ship they owned was. This ship functioned as a mobile command center. It had capabilities that the two fast ships with him now did not.

On that ship, he would be able to mass-produce Keresecks so that he could send them down to the rangers. There were also more resources on that ship for him to work with, to make plans and harness his abilities. It would also come in handy as he contacted other aliens from around the galaxy. Ones like Gachnok, who had an array of deadly abilities but were too stupid to hold any real power.

He knew that the rangers were not at full strength, and that they only beat Gachnok with the help of the red and Quantum Time Force rangers. The Time Force rangers were not a part of their team. Quick research showed that they were located in Silver Hills. If the Time Force team kept interfering, he would have to send a group to attack their home town. That would keep them away from the Planetary team long enough for Arius's aliens to destroy them.

Even if the rangers did get lucky and managed to blow up an alien before he destroyed them, the ship that was currently heading toward them had the ability to make the his minions grow tall enough to crush them. He wished he could simply send them down full sized to begin with. However, if he made that a common practice, none of the aliens would come when they were summoned.

There was no reverse in the growth process, which is why it was only profitable if they were dying already. Full size was only temporary, and when the effects wore off, they would simply combust. It would take days in Earth time for the effects to run their course, more than enough time to take out the majority of the Planetary team and bring Kaycea to him. However, should a full sized alien be too incompetent to complete this simple task, they would lose a member of their army.

They could not afford to lose members of their army. Deimos was already upset with Gachnok's loss. Not that he was important, but he had abilities that would be useful when he started to pull the empire back together. They needed to keep their army intact and strong so that they would be able to pull the forces of evil together and keep spies in every corner of the universe to make sure everyone stays in line.

Until the command ship arrived, Arius was unable to do anything. He was out of Keresecks, and his two generals had proven that they were not enough to take on the rangers alone. He would simply have to bide his time until they arrived. He hoped it would be soon, although the ship was not built for speed and most likely it would be several days before they arrived. Until then he would work on his plans for his next attack, figuring out what alien to call forth and what he wanted to do. Once the ship arrived, it would only be a matter of hours before Kaycea was returning with him to Deimos.

* * *

The next morning Jason found himself heading to a small breakfast café downtown. He was planning to meet his girlfriend there for a morning meal. He smiled as he thought about Emily. He could not believe how well things were going for them this time around.

A year ago, if someone had said he would be with Emily again his reply would have been "no way in hell". She broke his heart, ripped it out of his chest and stomped on it, and left him picking up the pieces for years. It was seeing her in K's dimension that made him think about her again, made him want to see her again.

He could not bring himself to talk to her though; he still fought with the memories of her. That was why he spied on her, until she caught him. They went out together and she apologized for cheating on him all those years ago. He forgave her and struggled with his feelings for her for months. On one hand, he loved her and wanted to try again, on the other she still cheated on him and he was not sure he could be more than friends with her. It was not until Kim and Carri caught him with her, letting him have it before listening to him and giving him solid advice, that he asked her out.

Jason walked out onto the patio of the café, where Emily sat drinking her coffee. "Hey." He greeted her, kissing her briefly before taking the seat across from hers.

"Good morning." Emily replied as she smiled at him.

Jason smiled back as he grabbed the pot of coffee that their waitress left on the table and poured himself a cup. He glanced down at the cup thinking about what he was going to have to talk to her about this morning. They planned to have this breakfast together a few days ago. Since then, a lot in his life had changed, and there was a lot to be discussed.

"What's up?" Emily questioned. She saw the way Jason stared thoughtfully into his coffee. He had something to say. Seeing as how he was not simply spitting it out she had a feeling it had to do with one of two things. Either he was breaking up with her, which she doubted seeing how well they were doing, or there was something going on with the rangers.

"Nothing." Jason said simply, frowning as he did so. Telling Emily he was a full time ranger again was not going to be easy. She respected that being a ranger was part of who he was, but she never really liked it.

He could not blame her; she was always on the outside looking in. The first time around it was hard. He had kept his secret from her for almost a year before he was forced to reveal himself or die. He thought her knowing would bring them closer together, but it only made her worry more. After the Zordon wave, when he lost his powers for good, he thought things would be better, but being a ranger was always a part of who he was and supposed that added to their separation.

The past campaign he was a ranger well before he started dating Emily again. She hadn't had to deal with that part of who he was for long, it was only a little less than two months, and from what he could tell she handled it as best as a worried girlfriend could. Now they were at the beginning of a new campaign, one that could be over quickly or drag on for a long time. They were going to fight as long as it took to win. The future of the universe was bleak at best if they failed.

Jason sighed. "Have you watched the news lately?"

Emily frowned. It was a ranger related issue. "I saw yesterday's battle. Saw the green Ninjetti, along with the new team of rangers. Would I be wrong in assuming I'm familiar with them?"

"More familiar than you think." Jason said as he frowned. He heard the tone in Emily's voice; it was evident that she was not happy about it.

"Which one?" Emily questioned. She assumed he would get her meaning.

"Black." Jason said simply. He probably should have waited until they were somewhere private. This was a hard conversation to have in a restaurant. Then again, he could not let it go without giving her some sort of an idea.

"Alright." Emily said simply. She would accept it, she had to accept it if she was going to date him. She was pleased when Callisto was defeated and Rhianna got purified, she thought she would be able to get her boyfriend back. However, there was always this little voice in the back of her head that kept telling her that he would never be finished. She had heard the phrase "once a ranger" tossed around on multiple occasions. Although she knew several former rangers who did not follow that motto as closely as others, Jason did and his friends were what she called ranger junkies and would always be ready to jump back into action. She supposed it was always a matter of not if, but when.

"There isn't much I can do about it. I was chosen I didn't get to chose." Jason intentionally omitted the part where he wanted to be a ranger again and would have jumped into the fight regardless. He figured she would assume that anyway. He hoped she understood. He was really falling for her, again, and he would hate it if she forced him to choose. He would always pick the rangers, they were who he was.

Emily could not help the smile that formed. "I understand." She replied. She knew Jason well enough to know that if his friends were involved, he would chose to get involved regardless of whether or not he was chosen. "How long?"

"Until we win." Jason said simply. How long was not a valid question. They did not fully get rid of Rita and Zedd for six years, while Rhianna lasted less than one. "There's a lot at stake this time, more than you could imagine. I can't get into it here, but it's going to be hard and dangerous and we have to do it."

"I know." Emily said, surprising Jason by reaching out across the table and grabbing his hand. "It's who you are and I will stand by you." She would never like the constant worrying or the running off at all hours, but she respected that it was what Jason did and she loved him.

Jason turned his hand so that he could cup Emily's. "Thank you." He said simply, giving her hand a squeeze. So much had changed in the last ten years. She was really accepting of his rangering. Of course that did not mean her attitude would not change in six months, but it meant a lot to him now. "Let's order breakfast." He said with a smile as he turned and tried to flag their waitress down.

* * *

It was still relatively early in the morning when Wes found himself waking up on the couch. He was a bit startled a first until he recalled the previous day's events. After leaving the rangers, he and Eric had return to the Silver Guardians. They were behind and had a lot of work to do and it was late before he returned home.

Once he finally made it home, it was late enough that his wife had gone to bed. Between the battle and the things he was doing with the Silver Guardians, he was still wide-awake and elected to stay downstairs on the couch so that he would not wake her. Before he knew it, he had flopped over onto the couch and was sound asleep, not waking until he heard the noise in the kitchen.

He stood and stretched before heading out to say good morning to his wife. Peering into the kitchen, he found her standing there, coffee cup in hand. "Hey." He greeted her as he put his arms around her and drew her in for a kiss.

As his lips brushed against hers, he had the same thought that he had every day since she came back into his life almost six years ago. He was lucky to have her here with him. She should not be here. He knew it, she knew it, his dad, Eric, the remaining Time Force rangers, they all knew it. Yet they chose to ignore it.

He first met his future wife when he became a power ranger years ago. She and the remaining three rangers were from the future. He fell in love with her then and was crushed when the reality set in that she had to go back. Almost a year later, when he and Eric teamed up with the Wild Force team after they came up against three Mutorgs, he was surprised to learn that she had chased them back to the past.

Originally nobody knew where she was, and he found out from Time Force that she was listed as missing in action and they had presumed she was dead. So he was excited when they found her, or rather, she found them, and he and Jen were reunited. They were able to defeat the Mutorgs with a bit of help from the remainder of the Time Force team along with Ransik and Nadira.

When it was time to return to the future, Jen was reluctant to leave. She loved being there with Wes and she had nothing to go back to. She had cut off all communication with Time Force upon her return to the past after disagreeing with her initial orders and deciding to do things her way. Time Force had assumed she was dead, but if they ever found out what happened, they would consider her a rogue officer and there would be serious punishment for that.

Wes begged her to stay but Jen did not know how she could do it. After all, the other rangers knew she was there and if she stayed, history was bound to record her somewhere. Wes said they would figure out a way for Jen Scotts never to show up in the history books if she stayed. Their friends from the future promised to report that she had not been seen and by all accounts was dead.

Jen's decision to stay had been easy. Wes took her to see his father and explained the situation as best as he could. Reluctant at first, Mr. Collins eventually agreed to help, using his connections to give Jen a new name and new identity. Her new name was Katherine Jennifer Myers, Katherine as a tribute to Katie, Jennifer so she could still go by Jen without suspicion and Myers because Eric had agreed to call her a cousin. That name stayed until they got married and she became Katherine Jennifer Collins.

"Hey yourself." Jen replied as she returned the kiss before he let her go. "I saw the reports coming out of Angel Grove this morning. Someone had a busy day yesterday." She caught the monster battle in segment on the Silver Hills news. The locals had been quite excited that two of their rangers were spotted helping out the rangers of Angel Grove.

"You could say that." Wes replied as he leaned back against the counter and grinned at Jen. "We were called to help out the three Planetary rangers." Wes paused briefly before continuing. "After the first battle, they ended up forming a new Planetary team to battle the latest bad guys, but their team is still one ranger short so we ended up pitching in with the second battle."

Jen thought about the Planetary team for a moment. "A ranger short?" she questioned, watching as Wes nodded. If she remembered correctly, history recorded that the Planetary team jumped from three to seven rangers. "Which ranger is missing?"

"The pink ranger." Wes replied. Every female that had ever been a ranger had taken a stab at the pink ranger powers and nobody was chosen to fill those shoes. "They ran out of candidates before those powers chose anybody."

"That's not possible." Jen replied standing up straight as warning alarms started flashing in her head. They could not have run out of candidates without the powers choosing somebody. There was a pink ranger. She sat her coffee cup on the counter and started to think about it, trying hard to remember who it was.

Jen knew a lot about some of the early teams, especially the ones that the time guardian served on. She had met Kim in the future, when she was a young cadet in Time Force. The Muirantian would stop by on occasion to visit with Time Force and consult with some of the higher-ranking officials, when she was in that dimension and nearby.

Jen had just gotten out of training when she first met her teacher. For reasons she did not understand, Kim took an instant liking to her. She did not know why, she was no more special than any other member of Time Force, especially considering her rookie status. Because the time guardian chose her out of all the others to take an interest in, it led to Jen's own interest in her. She was surprised to realize that the woman everyone looked up to was on the first team of rangers over a thousand years ago.

Kim was thought to have led a normal human life, having been on Earth for nearly ninety years, aging and dying of natural causes. It was almost three hundred years later before she reemerged on Earth to help out with something ranger related that corresponded with dimensional work she was doing. She had made herself known then because society was able to accept her for who she was, something that would not have happened during the years that would have made up her human life span.

She had fascinated Jen and she studied the rangers early years, focusing on the Muirantian's teams. She knew everything about her teams and the other rangers she worked with. She even read about the other teams during her tenure, although Time Force was excluded from the brief ranger history, only to be added at some point after Jen led the team back. She knew that one of the strongest teams her teacher had served on was her Planetary team.

Reading about her mentor as a red ranger helped shape Jen up. She knew she could be a red ranger one day. The time guardian took an interest in her, she wanted to repay her by leaving the same kind of ranger legacy behind. Kim led six rangers, Carri in white, Zhane in green, Rocky in blue, Tommy in silver, Jason in black and… Jen furrowed her brow. She knew the name of the pink ranger. It was Kate something. Kate Collins. That was it.

"Oh." Jen said aloud as the realization of what that meant hit her. Kate Collins. Katherine Collins. Katherine Jennifer Collins. It would not have clicked with her in the future because Kate Collins was all she knew about the pink ranger. Any mention of the name Jen was omitted.

She was pretty sure that was intentional as Kim had written most of the history herself. She was originally under the impression that it was to preserve the legacy of her friends. But now she wondered if it was something more. Perhaps her teacher wrote it in the future so Jen would read it in the future and carry the knowledge into the past.

"Oh?" Wes repeated as he looked over at his wife. "Do you know something?" he questioned. Sometimes Jen would cite things she should not, facts they should not know yet. Like the time that Jen was thinking wishfully about a law enforcement program that was set to start soon. This program was one of the earliest predecessors to Time Force and that she thought it would be amazing to get involved.

"It's me." Jen said, making a face as she turned back toward Wes. "I'm supposed to be the pink ranger."

"No." Wes replied, a little more harshly than intended. Jen could not be the pink ranger. If she was Time Force would most certainly discover her and come back to retrieve her. He could not let her get yanked out of his life like that. "It can't be you."

"It has to be me." Jen replied forcefully. She knew his concerns but she could not help it. There was no denying who the pink ranger was. "History has already recorded that it was me."

Wes frowned. None of this made any sense to him. "How can history record it was you if nobody knew you stayed back here to begin with?"

Jen nodded, expecting that answer, and then she launched into her explanation. "The most thorough and accurate ranger history that Time Force has recorded begins with S.P.D., everything prior to that was more legend or mythology. For the most part, it was stories passed down of the rangers and those they fought. Any actual history pieced together was created from a combination of Dr. Oliver's recordings and Kim's own memories. Even the best archeologists can't confirm everything that happened before S.P.D." Jen paused, wondering if he understood.

She waited for him to acknowledge her before she continued. "The Time Force records weren't added in until some point after we went back to the past. Then a series of documents and videos were added to our history from an unknown source, documents that matched up with the early ranger histories."

"As we changed history, it makes sense that the correct documents would appear." Wes was quick to point out. When they changed history, what history recorded was bound to change.

Jen shook her head no. She did not agree with that at all. "We thought we were changing history, but I don't think we changed anything at all. I think this was the way history was supposed to go in the first place, and Kim knew it before we ever came back to the past. She is a Muirantian, over a thousand years old in our time, a revered time guardian who has been fixing timelines since before anyone can remember; she knows things like that. In the weeks before Ransik escaped, we received an Alpha unit to be employed by Time Force. I suspect that she gave it orders to add things in on certain dates and I think she programmed it to add in the facts that prompted me to go back alone the second time. I think we were always meant to go back into the past the first time and I think she knew I was supposed to come back a second time and take the identity of Alex's maternal ancestor."

"So you think Kim had the Alpha unit insert bits and pieces into the history books as we progressed in the past to give the appearance that things were changing?" Wes questioned. He supposed it made sense. Kim would not be able to add things into the history books until they happened. Otherwise, they would risk Jen and the others knowing what happens and not doing what they were supposed to do, altering history. Wes sighed as he considered it. It was enough to give a person a headache.

"Yes." Jen replied with a nod. "I think it was the only way to allow history to progress correctly." She had not shared any of her theories on their first trip to the past and how she thought it played into the future. There was too much that she was not sure that she should say. Now that all this had come up, he had a right to know. "I also think that Kim intentionally left the name Kate Collins in there for me to see it in the future and approach her in the past."

"So then do you think you can trust her with your real identity?" Wes questioned. He hardly knew Kim aside from the rangers. In theory if she wanted to be malicious, she would have recorded that Jen Scotts was her pink ranger. That would have earned Jen an immediate retrieval by Time Force.

"I think I'm going to have to." Jen replied uneasily. The Kim in this time zone was not the teacher she knew and loved from the future, but like it or not, she would have to admit that she was the pink Time Force ranger in order to get Kim to let her look at the morpher.

In the future, she trusted the time guardian implicitly; she was a revered being to them; a teacher, mentor, guardian and parent. They all looked up to her and valued her wisdom and guidance.

The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that this was not a chance coincidence. Her mentor had assigned her to Time Force for a reason and specifically placed her in a position to return the second time. She had always advised against her relationship with Alex and, in hindsight, had all but openly encouraged her defection and return to the past.

Trusting the younger version of her mentor was a chance she would simply have to take. She would have to take a deep breath, put her faith in the Great Power, and hope it wouldn't steer her wrong as she jumped into this.

She sighed as she dumped the rest of her coffee out. "I'm going to get dressed. Then I'll make the trek to Angel Grove." She headed out of the kitchen, pausing to give her stressed out husband a kiss, before making her way back to their bedroom.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Carri arrived at Kim's apartment. She and the red ranger were planning to go shopping that afternoon. It should be a good way to relax after yesterday afternoon.

Carri strolled up to the door and knocked. There was a muffled come in from the other side and she let herself in. Kim was not hard to find. She was standing in the middle of the room, writing on a giant pad of paper. Surrounding her were discarded sheets with writing on them.

Ignoring her visitor, Kim kept working on her current sheet. Carri sighed and went to glance at the papers on the floor. The first one she picked up had the title "Ninjetti" and under that were scribbled names. The second piece of paper said "Original rangers" while the third said "Zordon era rangers", and was the only list to include everyone although Zhane's name had a question mark beside it. Carri glanced down at the other papers. Each had a title, and each listed anywhere from two to five ranger names.

"You want to clean all this up and go shopping?" Carri questioned. By the amount of discarded sheets, it was obvious that Kim had been at this for a while. She was afraid that her friend would go crazy if she did not get her out of the house soon.

Kim shook her head no. Sleep the previous night had been next to impossible. Every time she closed her eyes, she became swept away into a new nightmare. They were all surrounding the same thing. Arius. In her nightmares, they were not able to win because they were not able to find the pink ranger to complete their team. There were different routes but they always ended the same way. All her friends were dead and she was cross-hopping dimensions as Kemora. She woke up determined to solve the pink ranger question. Originally, she was just thinking to herself but after that got her nowhere, she pulled the pad of paper from the office and started writing. "I need to find the connection." She said as she glanced back at Carri. "Feel free to throw out ideas."

"I don't know that you can logic this out." Carri replied as she glanced at Kim's current list. "We've tested every female ranger on every team that has ever existed with members from Earth. I don't think the connection is going to be this obvious. If it was, we'd have a pink ranger by now."

"Maybe." Kim said as she crossed her arms and frowned. They needed their last ranger in order to have access to their full powers. "Maybe we should contact Kee and Delphine. Maybe one of them is the answer."

"It's possible." Carri replied as she considered it. They did not seem like the most likely candidates though. "Maybe you should just get out of the apartment for a while. Clear your head a bit."

Kim sighed. Maybe Carri was right. She had been at this for a while now, ever since Tommy left to go meet Rocky and Jason at Rocky's school. The boys were sparring today; it was their way of getting focused back into ranger mode. Kim thought this was her way of focusing but she was getting nowhere.

Going shopping was not going to help her figure out why there had not been a pink ranger chosen yet or help her strengthen her team to keep her from becoming the next Kemora. However, it very well may center and refocus her so that she could see clearly and everything was not a blur. At the moment, it was all jumbled up in her mind. "Fine. We will go shopping. But just long enough to clear my head. Then we'll both be fresh and we'll both work on this."

"Fine." Carri agreed with a grin. At least she could keep Kim from bordering on crazy for a while. There was nothing they could do short of asking every female in the world to come test the powers. Wes and Eric had agreed to help when necessary, and until they figured this pink ranger problem out they would be ok. Since Arius had apparently backed off for now, they needed to take what could be a rare opportunity to relax.

Kim set her pen down and she and Carri went to work gathering all the papers. Kim had a safe to put them in. The last thing she wanted was maintenance coming in and discovering her lists. As the last of the papers were stowed away, there was a knock at the door.

Kim was somewhat surprised; Carri was the only person she was expecting that day. The only other people that would drop by her apartment were at Rocky's school. She glanced briefly toward Carri who shrugged before she went and answered the door. "Hello." She greeted the strange brunette who was standing on her doormat.

"Hi." Jen said back, acknowledging Kim before glancing around her and looking at Carri. "Can I come in?" she asked, unsure of where to start. She was somewhat nervous. This was her teacher, her mentor, she looked up to the time guardian yet Kim had no idea whom she was. She would have to try to remember that.

"Excuse me?" Kim questioned, noticing as Carri stood straight up and moved closer toward her. "I don't believe we've met."

"I'm Jen Collins. Wes's wife." Jen replied with a smile. She hoped this was enough for Kim to back up and let her in. She did not know how much power being Wes's wife held but he did just help them out yesterday.

Kim glanced back at Carri who raised an eyebrow in response. Why would Wes's wife be on Kim's doorstep? Even if Wes broke their ranger code and revealed the identities of the Planetary rangers to her, she had no reason to visit Kim.

Before Kim could say anything, Carri spoke up. "You're a long way from Silver Hills." She said. Initially she liked Wes. After all, he and Eric had saved their butts yesterday. However, her opinion was quickly changing.

"I drove out here to see Kim." Jen explained, watching as her teacher looked at her skeptically. Kim declined moving out of the doorway so Jen continued. "I need to talk to you about something that I don't want to discuss where others can hear us."

The red ranger frowned. This had to be ranger related. Although what Wes's wife had to do with anything, she didn't know. "Fine." Kim said as she moved back and gestured for her to come in. "But make it quick, we were on our way out."

Jen watched as Kim shut the door and turned to stare at her, Carri quickly maneuvering herself beside Kim and crossing her arms. Jen glanced at both of them. Even if she did not know who they were, she could tell by the way they stood and the way they looked at her that they were both seasoned rangers. Both appeared to be open to listen to her but both also looked ready to pounce. This would be an interesting team.

"I came here because Wes told me that your pink ranger powers hadn't accepted any other females." Jen said as she looked the two of them over.

Kim and Carri were shocked at first that Wes had been so open with his wife. Carri ignored that little fact as she spoke up. "So what, you're here to apply for the job?" Carri said sarcastically. The pink powers had not accepted any veteran rangers, there was no reason they would accept her.

Jen gave her a hard smile. "Actually, I am." She knew she should just say who she was. She had already made up her mind; she was going to have to trust this was the right decision. Still, she was finding it hard to simply spit it out after she and Wes worked so hard to keep her secret.

"Even if you are Wes's wife, that doesn't mean you can just come in and apply." Kim informed her. She was not just going to show the pink morpher to every female that walked in off the streets. For all she knew, she would take it and run it to Arius. "What makes you think I can trust you enough to even let you look at the pink morpher?"

"I'm the only ranger on the planet who hasn't gotten to test the morpher." Jen quickly explained. "Wes said you still needed a pink ranger, I thought it was only fair that I give it a shot."

"And you expect us to believe that?" Carri said as she shook her head. She was ready to toss Wes's wife out and continue to their shopping date. "We had every ranger on every team that ever served on this planet with us yesterday. We weren't missing any rangers and that makes you a liar." She shifted her arms slightly so they would be easier to get into morphing position should the need arise.

Kim glanced at Carri. She was not sure she was ready to jump into morph, but she agreed with her best friend. Something was not right here. They had had every ranger with them yesterday. Jen Collins was not a ranger.

Jen noticed her mentor's reaction and knew that she did not believe her either. If there was one thing she knew about the time guardian, it was that she was smart. She knew she would have to quit thinking about it and tell the truth; otherwise, she risked never being able to see the morpher. "You didn't have Time Force." Jen replied.

"We had the members of Time Force that still reside in our time." Kim replied. The fact that Jen brought up Time Force made Kim suspicious. If she was Wes's wife, she would know where the rest of Time Force was. "The other four members of Time Force went back to the future."

"We did." Jen said, nodding in conformation. "That's where we stayed until I came back hunting Mutorgs. After that, Time Force thought I was dead. I stayed in the past and Wes and I have been working hard to keep my identity a secret ever since. If there was a record of me in the past, Time Force would come back and pull me back to the future. It's why I haven't come to a ranger meeting."

"You're Jen Scotts." Kim said simply. She knew the names of the other Time Force rangers from information Tommy had collected. She was surprised that the alarms did not go off when she heard that Jen was the first name of Wes's wife. She sighed as Jen nodded her head yes. "Hang on."

Carri and Jen watched as a red light engulfed Kim and she disappeared. Seconds later, the red light reappeared and she was back. "She is the pink Time Force ranger." Kim said as she glanced over at Carri. She watched as Carri smirked. It was nice to be able to go back in time and spy on people to verify facts.

"So then we'll let her have her shot?" Carri questioned.

"There's no reason not to." Kim replied as she walked off to get the box that held the remaining morpher. She was not sure if it would accept Jen or not, but she was desperate. If it did, that certainly threw a wrench in her lists. She had no idea what the seven of them had in common, other than previous ranger experience. She was not sure it mattered if they had all seven rangers, but it was something she would continue to look in to in her spare time.

Jen watched as Kim returned with the box. Kim opened it and Jen peered inside. Slowly Jen held her hand out. To the surprise of the other two rangers, the pink morpher glowed in response. Jen took it out of the box and clasped it to her wrist, and within seconds she became the Pink Wind Ranger.

"So now what?" Jen asked as she powered down. She was thrilled that she had been right and had not exposed her identity for nothing.

Kim was somewhat surprised, she had no idea what this meant and was more confused than before. Ignoring her confusion, she snapped herself back into the moment to answer the question. "Now we go back to the Command Chamber, introduce you to the others, get you a communicator."

"You're not going to tell them that I'm Time Force are you?" Jen asked. The less people that knew her secret, the better. She trusted the time guardian but only because she had to in order to keep history from changing. She knew that confiding in the younger version of her mentor was still a chance that she was taking. She was even more concerned about others knowing her secret. She hated having more reasons to worry about Time Force finding out.

"I have to." Kim replied. She understood her concerns, Jen staying probably violated a thousand rules and she had to imagine she'd immediately get snatched up and punished if she were to be found out. "Don't worry. Your secret will stay within the rangers. You can trust us."

Jen took a deep breath as she nodded. She would have to trust them now, she had no choice. She had to believe that the Great Power would not steer her wrong. "Let's go." She said simply as she allowed Kim to grab a hold of her and teleport her to the Command Chamber.

* * *

Rocky watched as Jason and Tommy danced around each other on the mats. They had been complaining about being rusty yesterday. It had been two and a half months since they last had to fight, just enough time that they considered themselves out of practice. It was Tommy who suggested a good workout was in order, and Rocky was quick to bring up his school, which was closed on Sundays. The three of them had been taking turns for a while now.

This used to be the kind of thing they did almost every day. In high school, they were at the Youth Center just about every afternoon and on weekends, sparring. Once they went to college, that dynamic changed. They would go to the gym together during the week then they would travel to Angel Grove on Saturdays, sparring at the Youth Center then. That lasted until Tommy graduated early. Afterward, Rocky and Jason did not go as much and once they graduated the practice stopped all together.

It was years before they all sparred together again. They hardly talked to each other between graduation and the time that Rhianna arrived, with the exception of the red ranger mission and Tommy's communication between reds. Sometime after they became rangers again they renewed their friendship and would spar together, however it was quite infrequently.

Although their friendship remained intact after they defeated Rhianna, they had not sparred since before their last battle, and they figured now was as good a time to shake off the fighting rust. So far, Tommy had won the most rounds, which indicated to both Jason and Rocky that the line he fed them about not practicing moves outside of rangering was bullshit.

Tommy and Jason came to a stopping point, both jogging over toward Rocky and grabbing bottles of water. "So who won?" Rocky questioned as he glanced from one to the other. He had not been counting.

Jason rolled his eyes and set his bottle back down. "You want to hit the mats?" he asked as he glanced at Rocky. He did not give up his afternoon to lose to Tommy. Although he had beaten him once, he had lost more than that and he was done. In high school and college, they were more evenly matched. After that, Jason spent most of his time writing. And dating. He supposed he had fallen behind. He was going to have to up his workouts.

"Let's do it." Rocky said, ignoring Tommy's bordering on evil chuckle. Tommy was a no-nonsense competitor, and he was really enjoying cleaning the mats with them. Rocky trotted out to the mats with Jason behind him. As they got set up, their communicators chirped.

Tommy's mood shifted as he walked over to join them, pulling his communicator up as he did so. "Go ahead." He said, assuming the news was Arius is back.

"You guys need to teleport to the Command Chamber. We have something to tell you." Kim's voice came through.

"On our way." Tommy said. He glanced over at Rocky and Jason briefly, both of whom were as confused as he was as to what exactly was going on. It obviously was not a battle or they would have been called into action. Not wasting time pondering the matter, they teleported up.

The three remaining ranger's teleported up to find Kim, Carri and Zhane along with an unknown female was waiting for them in the Command Chamber. "Who's this?" Tommy questioned, wasting no time getting down to business. Kim knew better than to invite a stranger into the Command Chamber, there had to be a purpose in this.

"This is Jen, our new pink ranger." Kim said simply as she gestured toward the final member of the team. Although she trusted her friends, for Jen's sake she would like to avoid telling them she was Time Force. However, knowing Tommy and the others like she did, she knew that would be the next question on their minds.

"So what, we went to spar while the rest of you interviewed strangers for the pink ranger spot?" Jason questioned in disbelief. As far as he knew, this girl was not a ranger and should not have been eligible to try. Strangely enough, despite the fact that she should not have been eligible, apparently she was accepted. He had no clue what that meant.

Kim frowned. It was odd but it was explainable. She was trying to work her way up to it though. "Actually Jen found us."

Tommy was studying her closely as he tried to put the pieces together. There was only one Jen who was a ranger and would be eligible to try for the pink powers. "You're Time Force aren't you?" He had heard all about Time Force from Carter a few months before his Serpentera mission.

"I was." Jen replied evenly. She saw how Tommy was looking at her. This was not going to go well. Out of all the rangers she had read about, she should have known Tommy would be the one to appear to not be happy with her staying in the past.

"You don't belong here." Tommy quickly pointed out. Time Force went back to the future. They had to, it was where they belonged. When he was putting together his video diary of the rangers, he took the time to research Time Force and none of the rangers from the future had been recorded anywhere since their brief appearance before their red ranger mission.

"Time Force believes that I'm dead." Jen said sharply. She was afraid of this kind of reaction. She had stepped forward because she was needed, but she was not willing to give up her life here, give up Wes. "As far as they're concerned, I died hunting the Mutorgs."

"Who knows what you've done by staying." Tommy replied. He knew enough about time travel to know that you do not interfere with the past. Jen was Time Force, she was probably more aware of the consequences than he was. "You have to return to your time."

"No she doesn't." Kim said, watching as Tommy turned sharply toward her. "We need her here. The pink powers accepted her. We will keep her secret and not record her being here, or tell anyone, even the other rangers that she's here. Otherwise Time Force will take her away."

"Fine." Tommy said gruffly. This went against his beliefs. However, they did need a pink ranger, and the powers were obviously finicky. They could allow her to stay and help. "Once we've defeated Arius though, we have to send her home."

"We can't alert Time Force that she's here. There's nothing stopping them from pulling her out of this time before she gets to be our pink ranger." Kim replied. She watched as Tommy frowned. He had a protest ready she could see it. "Besides, if she's interfering with the future, Time Force will be alerted. They'll investigate and fix things, come back for her if they need to." Kim knew if they played their cards right, Time Force would never know she was alive. If this mission lasted as long as she assumed it would, she would have some time to convince Tommy that everything was for the best.

Tommy sighed. He was not going to argue with his girlfriend over this now. They would have to see how this played out. Besides, he had some time to convince her that he was right. "Ok. We'll let Jen stay."

Jen refrained from openly sharing the emotions that were flowing through her. Instead, she replied with a simple "thank you", smiling briefly at Tommy before the rangers introduced themselves one by one.

Once Jen was acquainted with everyone, Rocky spoke up. "So then we have a full team?" he found himself asking the obvious question. He watched is Kim nodded. "This means that we have access to more weapons?"

"Among other things, yes." Kim replied as she thought about it. She and Billy were going to have to look into the specifics of combining weapons and cannons and that sort of thing. There was also one more thing they would need access to and need it to combine. "Can you build new zords?" she questioned as she turned toward Billy. Zords at this point were not a necessity, but she would rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them. Besides, even if they did not need them against Arius they could come in handy in the future.

"From scratch?" Billy questioned as Kim nodded. He was hoping she had some sort of idea what she wanted to do for the zords. Building zords wasn't difficult, although he didn't spend much time building them from scratch as it was usually a long process. The last zords he had built for them for use with their Ninja Zeo powers had been based off of templates from their Ninja zords, with some modifications. Templates made the process go a lot faster, especially if they were looking at building seven zords that needed to combine together. "I'll have to research. I'll need to find a more appropriate way of putting zords together for your usage."

The red ranger thought about that for a moment. "I'll contact Elemi." She said. She noticed the face Tommy was making. He hated it when she talked to Elemi, seeing as how Elemi did not hide his affections for her. Trying to ignore Tommy's face, she continued. "He can put me in touch with the scientists that created their zords. They have seven that work together perfectly, and they are some of the most advanced zords in the galaxy."

Jason let out a low whistle. He had only seen the Nova's zords in action once, but that was more than enough to leave an impression. "If we don't get a chance to use them against Arius, do you think we could jump into another conflict and help out?" He was not going to let these go to waste.

Kim chuckled. She remembered Jason's reaction when he first saw the Nova's zords. "You know as well as I do that we'll most likely get plenty of opportunities to use the zords."

"Great so then we're all situated." Zhane said with a grin. He was happy this team was coming together quickly. Hopefully it wouldn't take long to send Arius packing and he could concentrate more on other things.

"Yes. We've got a full team, that's going to open up lots of doors during battle." Kim paused as she thought about it. Everything was pretty much set now. Hopefully she could sleep easily tonight. She looked around at her team and smiled. "Until our next battle, there's not much we can do so feel free to return home."

Zhane nodded and was the first to say goodbye as he teleported out. The boys were next, and after they said their goodbyes, they headed back down to Rocky's school to finish up, clean up and head home. Jen was at a loss for a moment, before Billy gestured for her to follow him so that he could set her up with a communicator.

Kim glanced over at Carri as the room emptied. "I'm going to go ahead and contact Elemi."

Carri let out a sigh. "I assume this means our shopping trip is canceled?" she questioned. Rangers came first, and as far as she was concerned, that would always the case. However, it was rare that she and Kim had free time at the same time and she was a little disappointed that they could not shop.

"Don't worry," Kim grinned at Carri as she put an arm around her best friend's shoulders, "I've got plenty of stuff for you to do in place of shopping." She watched as Carri frowned and rolled her eyes before grinning and allowing Kim to hand out an order.

As Carri walked off, Kim headed over to the communications console and went to open up a channel to the Enzway. Now that they had a full team and things were pulling together, hopefully defeating Arius would not be as impossible as she initially thought. Of course, she knew that he was not going to give up any time soon. It was going to be a hard fought battle. She knew her team would not give up. They would fight to the end to save the planet, the galaxy and countless other dimensions from her dark inheritance.


	5. Sacrifices

**Disclaimer:** The known characters from the Power Rangers universe belong to Saban. The names Kaycea and Edward Moon as well as the Nova Rangers and any reference to K, her world, or their adventures on her world belong to KSuzie. All other characters belong to me.

Dark Inheritance  
"Sacrifices"

Arius made himself comfortable in the captain's chair of his command ship. The ship arrived that morning, and although it had taken nearly a week, it was going to be well worth the wait. The minute the ship arrived; he took over and got the grand tour.

He was quite impressed with the ship's ability to make Keresecks. His army would never stay small for long. In theory, with the addition of this ship to his cause, his army would never be completely depleted again. This ship should be the edge he needed to take out the Planetary team and force Kaycea to return with him. However, just to be safe, he left Shax to oversee the creation of the Keresecks. He wanted to make sure they were having no problems and that they were getting them out quickly.

There was no way he would disappoint Deimos again. He had access to every resource under Deimos's command; there was no more room for excuses. Kaycea may be Muirantian born and trained under Dulcea, but he was a first-born Drakonian son. He had all the power his family had to offer flowing through his veins. His family was well known and quite feared throughout his home planet of Draken for their magic and powers that he inherited.

He almost felt sorry for those who did not have his legacy. Sorry in the way that they would never be able to join his evil ranks and serve under him, that they would never be more than worthless peons like his brother had been. A laugh escaped his lips as he thought about his brother. On a good day, he could summon the power of a novice sorcerer, yet he thought he had powers comparable to Arius's own.

That had been Marcus's downfall. He thought he was more powerful than he was. It was why his brother took on the Planetary rangers without his help. If he had known Kaycea was Muirantian, he would have accepted his brother's invitation to come to Earth. Instead, he decided not to waste his time with two pathetic rangers on a lower class planet. Deimos had more important tasks for him to focus on, tasks he wasn't going to ignore for his brother's project.

It came as no surprise to Arius that his brother was no match for Kaycea. He had beaten countless rangers from other words but his brother would not be strong enough to face a red ranger, let alone one that was demon spawn. He had heard that the Planetary ranger made short work of his brother. He did not mourn for him, nor did he swear revenge. He looked after his brother because they were kin, but they were never close. Marcus was the useless one in the family; he was the one with the great future in front of him.

He would admit to some joy in finding himself locked in battle with his brother's killer. However, he was no idiot; even if he was not planning to be loyal to Deimos, he knew that Kaycea was much more valuable to him alive rather than dead. Alive she was the demon spawn of Maligore, heir to the throne. If he did not know of Deimos's power he would seduce her himself. Dead was another story. Dead she was nothing more than a chance at revenge, a chance to bring some glory to his family's name, to his brother's name.

His family name already struck fear in the hearts of those who knew it. He was the one with all the birthrights, and the power that came with them. His brother was nothing more than a footnote in their family legacy. Not getting revenge for Marcus's killer would not make him or his family look poorly in the eyes of others. Getting revenge would bring them a shining moment of glory, but it was nothing in comparison to what keeping Kaycea alive would bring.

"Arius." His name pulled him away from the thoughts of his brother. Arius looked around to find Novak kneeling down before him.

"I assume you come with good news?" Arius questioned. As Deimos was getting frustrated with him, he was getting frustrated with his generals. They were supposed to be the best, yet they struggled against the rangers. If they continue to fail, he will see to it that they spend time in the belly of the slogots long before Deimos thinks about sending him there.

Novak stood and nodded. "Lavock has accepted. He will arrive soon." He replied

Arius gave him a slight nod. "Good." He said. He had sent Novak to invite one of the aliens in their army to come challenge the rangers. Lavock was a good solid choice. He came from a species whose skin and several attributes were similar to an Earth dragon. Just from his birthright, he had the ability to breathe fire, nails that were long sharp metal daggers that can be shot from his fingers on all four arms, and a tail that could extend and wrap around the rangers with a sharp tip that could be used to damage them. Where Lavock stood out from the rest of his kind was his title as a weapons expert. Each arm could carry a different weapon, and no matter what the combination he was deadly and unstoppable.

Despite all his special talents, much like the other aliens he did not have what it took to be more than just a follower. However, he excelled at following orders and Arius was glad he was coming here to take on the rangers.

Arius glanced briefly at Novak. "Go inform Shax that Lavock is on his way. Make sure we have enough Keresecks for a battle as soon as Lavock arrives."

Novak bowed once more before turning and taking off for a different area of the ship. Once his general was gone, Arius stood. There were resources on his ship that could help improve his powers, and he planned to take advantage of them while he waited. When Lavock arrives, he will send his army down, allowing them to kill some rangers while capture the others. Once they are vulnerable, he will be able to approach Kaycea. If her fallen teammates did not convince her to come peacefully, a display of his power would. Soon he would be on his way to see Deimos, victorious.

* * *

Kim found herself running through a list of errands she had to run before lunch. It had been a busy week at work, between her regular work from Sandy and the special projects from Ashley. Kim had not made it home on time one day that week. She had not been able to get anything outside of work done. Usually at night, she would go home and collapse on the couch beside Tommy.

She made it her personal mission to get herself caught up before lunch. That was because she had a lunch date; one that she was not sure was going to go well. It had been set up by Kat, and was meant to be a lunch for all the ranger girls that served under Zordon. Carri thought it was Kat's way of bonding with old friends seeing as how she had not gotten out as much since the baby was born.

In some ways, it would be good. Carri and Trini would be there, and although she saw them both often, it was still nice to have lunch. Tanya could not make it, but Aisha would be there and Kim was happy with the opportunity to catch up with her. She did not get the chance to visit with the former yellow ranger as often as she would like. It was nice that Aisha was trying to come to Angel Grove more now that she was in San Diego.

The biggest issue about the lunch was the presence of Kat. Kim did not hate Kat, but her relationship with the former pink ranger has been strained for years. Mostly it surrounded the fact that Kat took over her life when she went to Florida, then when Kim returned, she took it back. Kim willingly gave up her powers to Kat when she left, and she practically gave her boyfriend to the pink ranger when she broke up with him in a letter.

Once Kim returned to visit the rangers, everything went downhill from there. It was nobody's fault, but sometimes things happen. Kim got a temporary use of Kat's powers, she and Tommy were reminded that they loved each other and she made friends with Kat's best friend.

Kim saw the others a few times that year before moving home permanently. By the time she came home, a lot had changed. Tommy's admitting that he still loved Kim led Kat to cheat on him briefly before dumping Tommy for her now husband Chris. Her relationship with Chris got her thinking about how life would be much simpler if she was not a ranger. She would not have to lie to him; she would have more free time for him and for other activities that she wanted to participate in.

Her relationship with Chris also led her to separating herself from the other rangers. Not intentionally, but Chris did not really click with the rest of the team so she hung out with his friends more than she hung out with her own. By the time Kim returned, Kat was already separating herself from the group, and especially from her cousin. Carri was friends with Chris's ex-girlfriend and knew what kind of man he was, and she never accepted him.

When the relationship was newer, and Chris had not done much to prove Carri right, she was not as vocal, but there was still a separation there. Meanwhile, she was becoming closer to Kim, who moved home and moved in with her. It was not long after that they were inseparable best friends.

That summer, Kat gave Kim her powers after deciding it was best for her to leave the team. This sudden revelation led to an argument with Carri, and their relationship never truly recovered from the fallout. There was already strain in her relationship with Kat, and after the fight with Carri she firmly sided with her best friend and that ruined any kind of relationship she had with the former ranger.

Unlike Carri, she had been civil with Kat the few times they saw each other over the years. Conversations with her had been more pleasant the last few months, but Kim knew that had to do with the fact that she was Carri's maid of honor and Kat wanted to be involved in the wedding. She did not know what would happen after the wedding but she knew Kat and Carri were too different for them to ever be best friends again. If those two were not friends, Kim had no reason to try to be friends with Kat again. She would simply do what she'd done every meeting in the past. Smile and try to be polite while praying that it was not too awkward.

With a sigh, Kim turned down the next aisle, hoping she could find what she needed and get out of Target quickly so that she could move on. As she turned, she ran into someone. Both women grabbed a hold of each other briefly, before Kim stepped back. "I'm sorry." She apologized.

"No biggie." The other woman said as she looked at her.

When they made eye contact, Kim immediately recognized her and the man standing beside her. "Rhianna!" she exclaimed putting her hands on her hips. Last, she heard she was grounded from the surface world after a particularly mischievous trick she pulled on her uncle. As far as she knew, shopping at Target with Skull was not some sort of exception. Kim still thought Rhianna should be banned from the surface world all together, at least while she was still with Skull. Mystic Mother did not approve of the relationship, but after losing her daughter and Skull helping to save Rhianna's life, she continued to let it slide. At this point, they were practically inseparable. At Rhianna's young age, Kim insisted that there could be consequences, but Mystic Mother seemed to think it was a fling and that her daughter knew better.

"Gina." Rhianna replied as she rolled her eyes. Regina had been the name she used the first time she had tried to blend in with the humans. Skull had shortened it to Gina, and she liked that. "Only my mom calls me Rhianna."

"Speaking of your mother," Kim said as she glared at her and tried to ignore her attitude, "does she know you're out here?"

"Nah." Rhianna replied, grinning mischievously. "Mom's a bit busy, sleeping off a headache." Rhianna had given a headache to her during one of their training sessions. She did not hesitate to take the opportunity to slip away.

"I think your mom finds you slipping away to see me cute." Skull said as he gave his girlfriend a kiss. She did it all the time. If Rita, or whatever she wanted to be called now, did not like it she would have put a stop to it.

"I think so too." Rhianna replied. Her mother moaned, groaned, and talked about headaches, but she has the power to physically stop her and has not done it yet. Her father, for the most part, ignored the whole situation and left it to her mother to deal with. "Besides, I'm mommy's only child. She'll let me do whatever I want."

Kim could not help but snicker at the statement. It was true that Rhianna was Rita and Zedd's only child by birth, but she was not the only being with their DNA. Mystic Mother had told her the story of Thrax, the creation from hers and Edward Moon's DNA when they were better known as Rita and Zedd. Rita worked for Zedd for a long time before her imprisonment in the space dumpster. She was powerful, but Zedd was even more so which was why she worked for him. They did not get along at all, and when one of their scientists suggested a union between the two in order to magnify their powers and produce a super powerful offspring, he got himself thrown out of Zedd's palace.

That scientist took matters into his own hands. He was very crafty in stealing DNA from both Lord Zedd and Rita Replusa, manipulating the DNA and creating a child from it. He thought Zedd would be proud at the powerful baby he made for him. Instead, Zedd took one look at the creature and called it a disgusting abomination, and said that the scientist was fired and banished, the baby to be killed, and if he found that thing anywhere, he would kill its creator.

As he fled, the scientist took the baby with him without Zedd's knowledge. He had done this for Lord Zedd and the ruler of evil had humiliated him. He thought the best revenge was for him to raise the baby and harness his powers to one day overthrow his "father" so that the child could rule with him at his side. As Thrax grew, the scientist told him stories about Rita and Zedd being his parents, and he would send him on missions that he swore his parents sent him on.

When Thrax was young and coming into his power, he came up against the Sentinel Knight, who trapped him. He stayed trapped until some point in the future, when he grew strong enough to break free. Mystic Mother had not been sure of the year he escaped, but it was while Bridge Carson was SPD red on Earth. He was the one who led a team to investigate Thrax's sudden appearance on the moon. That was why Sentinel Knight brought him back to the past to help fight against Thrax.

Thrax had managed to elude Bridge, taking off to seek out the scientist that raised him. He found him, and found out that Zordon and the rangers of Earth purified his supposed parents. Thrax was determined to rebuild his parents' empire and get revenge against both the Sentinel Knight and Earth. His creator thought it was a bad idea to send Thrax to Earth now. SPD had defeated Grumm, and Thrax was not nearly that powerful.

The scientist said he could send Thrax to attack Earth in the past, before SPD. Thrax wanted to go team up with his parents, but his creator lied and said he could not send him back that far. He knew Zedd would kill Thrax on sight. That was why he had elected to send Thrax back to 2007, where there were several villains roaming the Earth that Thrax could command to get his revenge.

He could not have known that Sentinel Knight would interfere. He brought Bridge back from the future since he had already started working to stop Thrax, and contacted Tommy for help. Their team was too busy with Rhianna, so Tommy suggested Adam and Kira, and the former yellow ranger suggested her friend Tori. Edward talked to Mystic Mother upon realizing the creature he sentenced to death was allowed to live and was now attacking, and they suggested Xander to be added to the team. In the end, the Sentinel Knight with the help of the Overdrive team and the former rangers destroyed Thrax.

Rhianna heard Kim snicker and she rolled her eyes, pulling the red ranger back into the moment. "Well I am." She said matter-of-factly. When Kim narrowed her eyes and gave her a look Rhianna pouted. "You're not gonna tell mom you saw me are you?" she asked pleadingly.

Kim sighed. She supposed she should, although when Mystic Mother awoke to find her daughter missing, she had a feeling she would know where she was. "Fine."

"Thank you Kim!" Rhianna said, practically squealing with delight. Her eyes lit up and she looked at the woman who worked with her mother. "Oh guess what."

Kim raised an eyebrow as Rhianna started going off at a mile a minute. She did not know how long this tale was going to go or when she was going to be able to separate herself from the duo. She still had a lot to get done. At this rate, she was never going to make it to lunch.

* * *

Trini stood, rubbing the shoulders of her stressed out husband as he labored. She was supposed to be assisting him with the new Zords, but at this point, he looked like he needed this more. "Relax." She said softly in his ear.

"It's hard to relax. They're counting on me." Billy replied with a sigh as he brought his hand to his face and rubbed his bleary eyes.

"They are." Trini said simply before leaning down and kissing her husband on the cheek. "But they don't want you to kill yourself for them."

"No they don't." Billy agreed. The rangers themselves weren't the only reason he was working this hard. He was working to ensure that they won. He was working to ensure that his future, the future of his friends and family, was secure. He was working to stop another Kemora. "If I don't get these ready before Arius attacks, they could lose."

"They're almost done." Trini pointed out. Billy had obtained the designs from the Nova's scientists and had enough pull left with the intergalactic community to get the supplies he needed. Now it was simply a matter of putting it all together.

They had a meeting early on in the week to figure out what they wanted to do. The Nova's zords started out as motorcycles that turned into body armor that turned into individual zords, which would combine to make the megazord. It was an amazing advancement in zord technology. It was lighter and moved more gracefully than any zord on Earth yet the armor was stronger than their old zords. Billy wanted to take all aspects of that technology.

The issue was if they should have the motorcycles separate from the zords or if they should have them convert. The positive side of making them all one was that Billy did not have to worry about rearranging the zord bay and possibly adding to it for the new zords. The drawback was if they rode the cycles into battle and damaged them, their zords were going to be damaged and there was no guarantee they would not need them. After much debate, Kim elected to separate the two pieces and the others agreed.

Billy was focusing on the zords now. He did want to get to the motorcycles; he had some amazing ideas for weaponry to incorporate. However, all of that was on the back burner until he had seven fully functional zords that could create a megazord.

The former blue ranger was finding that he was enjoying the work. He loved using the Nova's technology and adding in his own ideas. The only issue was that it was taking longer than expected. Initially he hoped they would be done by now, but it appeared as though they were still a few days away from being fully functional.

Billy turned in his chair his eyes meeting Trini's. "I know. But almost won't help if we get a city sized monster today."

"If we get a city sized monster, we will figure something out." Trini assured him. She did not know what exactly they would figure out, but if anybody could come up with something in a pinch it was her husband.

Billy chuckled. If anyone could be optimistic about a bad situation, it was Trini. "We'll have to." He agreed with her.

"You need to take a break." Trini suggested. He had been putting in a lot of hours on this project, on top of what he did for his paying job. Not that she minded, it was for the fate of the universe and she was able to come up here and assist some. However, she did not think he could keep going at this rate, not without collapsing. All this work looked like it was aging him.

"Maybe." Billy said with a sigh. He did not want to take a break he wanted to keep going. He did not think he should though. At the rate things were starting to get blurry and mashed up in his head, he was probably better off stepping away for a bit to clear his mind before plowing back into it.

"There's no maybe about it." Trini said with a smile. "There's no sense in working this hard to save the world if you're not around to enjoy it." Her tone was serious but both of them knew her statement was not exactly true. They had both committed years ago to being power rangers. Even without morphers, they still believed in the same things and if they had no other choice, they would give their lives to this world.

"Fine." Billy said as he tossed his hands in the air and grinned. "I'll take a break." He said as he pulled his wife down into his lap. "It's about time to attend to my nutritional needs anyway."

"Good." Trini said, leaning in to give her husband a kiss. "Then you'll be well rested and ready to tackle this."

"Would you like to join me for lunch?" Billy questioned.

"I can't." Trini replied. "I'm meeting the other ranger girls for lunch, remember." She was actually looking forward to girl time. They did not have it often.

Billy frowned. He was certain that she had brought that up before. However, with everything floating around in his mind involving the zords, he was not surprised that her tidbit about lunch escaped him. "I remember." Billy lied, watching as Trini gave him a look.

"It's ok." Trini said as she stood. She would not fault him for it; he had enough on his plate. "I need to leave soon anyway to meet the girls, but I'll come back this afternoon." She wanted to grab some things from the house before meeting the others. She was going to have to teleport into Angel Grove, but she figured she was in the Command Chamber working on ranger activities; her excuse for needing to teleport was valid.

"I'll still be here." Billy assured her. There was no way he was going to slack on the zords.

"You're going to go to lunch first, right?" Trini questioned with a grin, watching as her husband nodded his head yes. "Good." She said as she gave him a goodbye kiss. "I'll see you later." She said before teleporting out.

Billy watched as the faint teleportation streaks disappeared before glancing at his watch. He was going to leave to go get something to eat. He had to, otherwise Trini would know he was lying and she would never let him hear the end of it. With a sigh, Billy stood and teleported himself out, leaving the place empty for the moment.

* * *

Kat found herself sitting with her baby at a table, waiting for her friends to arrive. She had made it right at the agreed time and she hoped the others would be there soon. She glanced down at her watch just as Denise started giggling. Kat looked over to see an older woman smiling and waving at her baby. She flashed the woman a smile before looking at her amused daughter.

The last four months, when Kat was not at her dance school, Denise took up every moment. There was feeding, changing, laughing, crying, the late night hours, plus all the baby programs. Kat would not have it any other way. She loved Denise; she was the best thing that ever happened to her.

She and Chris had been closer than ever since Denise was born. He wanted to provide for his daughter and Kat loved seeing him transform into the father role. He was on his third new job since the baby was born. Ever since he quit his last one, he had not been able to find one he liked. It seemed as though he was settling well into this one. The money was decent, and he still had his part time job at the golf course.

Now things with herself, Chris and Denise were starting to settle into some sort of routine. She wanted to start spending time with some of her old girlfriends. After seeing the former rangers last week at the meeting, she decided to start her spending time with old friends by going out with her ranger friends. She invited all the girls who had served through her last team. Tanya could not make it, for obvious reasons, but everyone else was able to come.

She always enjoyed chatting with Trini, even though she did not know her in high school. Aisha had become her first friend on the team, she was glad she was coming so that they could catch up some. As for Kim and Carri…. She was getting along with both of them better now, although she knew her cousin's wedding had a lot to do with it. She hoped that the three of them could work on being friends again after the wedding but only time would tell.

Kat frowned, then she heard someone call out to her from across the restaurant. Looking up, she saw Aisha and Trini heading her way. Her mood immediately brightened. "Hey girls." She greeted, standing to give both of them hugs.

As Trini and Aisha finished saying hello to Kat, they both leaned over Denise and gave the baby the appropriate greeting before taking seats. "So how have things been?" Aisha asked as she made herself comfortable.

"Good. Busy with the baby." Kat replied with a smile. "How have you guys been?"

Before either could answer her, another voice spoke up. "Hey." Carri said, flashing everyone at the table a smile. She watched as Kat stood to give her a hug, then she took a seat beside Trini. She looked around at the three faces at the table. She was somewhat disappointed that Kim was not there already.

She wasn't disappointed that the red ranger wasn't there because she did not like the other girls at the table. She was close enough with Trini, which is why she sat next to her. Despite the fact that Aisha was one of Rocky's closest friends and was going to be in her wedding, she did not know her that well. It was not that she did not want to get to know her. Aisha never lived in the same city as Carri. The only times she saw her when she visited were group events, where both girls usually spent more time chating with old friends. Therefore, they never really spent time together. Then there was Kat. The situation with Kat was… complicated. She never knew how time spent with Kat would go. It had not ended poorly in a few months and she was hoping that streak would continue at least through today.

Pushing those thoughts aside she gave her best "I'm having fun" smile before she spoke. "So, girls, what are we dishing about?"

"Our lives." Trini replied with a smile. Trini was in a similar situation as Carri. The white ranger was the only one of the group she knew well. She was not a ranger with Aisha or Kat, and she had not spent a lot of time with either since she moved back to California.

"Ah." Carri said smiling back. "Mine's no secret. Half of it is in the tabloids," she paused to roll her eyes, "and the other half is," she pointedly looked at her communicator, "on the evening news."

"I don't see how you stand the tabloids." Aisha replied. She had read the articles over the last few months. She hated seeing the way they portrayed her relationship with Rocky. Even the articles about their engagement were not all glowing concerning her and the blue ranger.

"I don't." Carri replied with a shrug. She was getting better at it thanks to some advice from her brother, but it still drove her crazy to see some of what they wrote. She was starting to learn to avoid reading tabloids all together if she could. "I'm forced to tolerate them unless they're flat out lies." Her father convinced her that going crazy on someone over most articles was just going to give them more ammunition.

"I don't think the tabloids matter." Trini said comfortingly. She and Billy never even read the tabloids, with the exception of the article that insinuated that Carri was a slut. She had gotten worked up about it and they wanted to see if it was as bad as she made it sound. It was. However, they knew the truth, and so did Carri's friends, that is all that mattered.

Carri sighed but did not get to comment as Kim approached the table. "Hey." She greeted everyone. She went around the table and said hello to the foursome, even exchanging a few pleasantries with Kat. She was the only one of the group who knew them all well. Once she was finished, she moved toward the remaining seat. "Sorry I'm late." She apologized as she made herself comfortable in her chair.

"It's not a big deal. We haven't been here long." Kat assured her. She was just excited Kim came and that they could all have a pleasant lunch together.

"I thought you guys would have been here for a while. If I had shown up on time, I would have been the early one." Kim joked. She would have had been earlier if Rhianna had not kept her there forever going on and on about who knows what. It was no wonder that Mystic Mother said the girl constantly gave her headaches.

Carri rolled her eyes. "Might have doesn't count." She said with a smile.

"It's not my fault I ran into Gina and her boyfriend and she wouldn't stop talking." Kim replied rolling her eyes right back. She purposefully did not call her Rhianna or reference Skull. She did not know how much Aisha and Kat knew about the situation with Rhianna and she certainly did not want to talk about everything right now in the middle of the restaurant.

Carri started laughing and even Trini chuckled. Both were involved enough in current ranger activities that they knew the girl they only fought last year was now masquerading on the surface as Gina and dating Skull. Aisha and Kat exchanged glances, but when it became obvious that Kim would not, or could not, fill them in here they moved the conversation along.

"So," Kat said with a smile as she glanced at the two active rangers. "Did you guys ever find the solution to your little pink problem?"

"Yes we did." Carri said, not adding anything else as a waiter arrived to take their orders. She was not planning to add to it. They had agreed to keep Jen's identity a secret to keep Time Force out of the loop. She did not know Jen that well, but she was not going to betray her trust, not when it could mean them losing an active team member.

As the waiter left, Aisha sat forward. "Anybody we know?" she questioned, referencing the pink ranger. As far as she knew that, it was impossible that it was a former ranger. They had all been tested and not accepted. However, that did not mean that it was not a friend of the rangers.

"No." Kim replied, smiling at the former yellow ranger. She did not like lying to her friend, but the less people that knew Jen's secret the better. She decided to give her a little bit of information. "It's a really long story but we found someone. Her name is Kate." Kim said. That was the first thing she thought of to call her as Jen told her that Katherine was the first name she used. She would have to remember to tell Jen that. "She lives just outside of Turtle Cove." Kim finished. Technically that was not a lie. Silver Hills was the next town over from Turtle Cove.

Trini glanced over at Kim and Carri raised an eyebrow. Both of them figured they would have to tell people something about Jen but neither was sure what to say. They both figured this was as good as any place to start. Eventually more would come out about the mysterious Kate. Like the fact that she was Wes's wife, and that outside Turtle Cove meant securely in Silver Hills.

"Anyway, I'm sure you'll meet her sometime, she is part of the family now." Kim said rather cheerfully in an attempt to put an end to that conversation. She supposed they could not keep Jen hidden away forever. The ranger community would have to meet her as Kate. They had to be careful. They did not want to get Jen too involved, something might slip unintentionally. However, they could not keep her from the rangers; some of them would get too suspicious.

Kim flashed the other girls a smile. "So how are you guys?" she asked before looking toward Kat. "How are you and Chris adjusting to the baby?"

Trini and Aisha looked toward Kat, excited to hear her answer. Carri was the only one who made a face and glared at Kim. She knew better than to ask any question involving Chris. Kat would drone on and on about how wonderful Chris was, and Carri would much rather spend an hour with Callisto then five minutes with Kat listening to her praise her loser husband.

Kim simply smiled at her friend as Kat started to talk animatedly. Kat going on and on about Chris was what she was counting on. They would get this inevitable part of the conversation out of the way, the new pink ranger would be forgotten, and they could go on with what would hopefully be a nice lunch with old friends.

* * *

It was later that afternoon when Tommy found himself pulling into the parking lot of Hayley's Cyberspace Café. It had been a busy day and he had wanted to stop and spend some time with the woman who had been his closest friend over the last few years.

The morning had started excessively early, as he had to meet Anton at eleven to discuss some things, things that had to be taken care of face-to-face. Once they were finished, he did not want to turn around and drive back. He had driven a long way for a short meeting. He decided to head over to his house and gather some things he wanted for his new place.

Not that he had a new house yet, he was just being optimistic. Before Arius interrupted their weekend last weekend, he and Kim found a house they liked. It fit their needs to a tee, it was more suited to what they wanted than the last house they put a bid on, and he was really excited about it. At the first of the week, they had put out an official offer. The homeowners had been out of town this past week, but he was hoping they would hear back from them on Monday.

He hoped they would accept their offer. He found it reasonable, but he was the one that was making it. If they did not accept the initial offer, he was willing to negotiate to get them in this house. He hoped by the end of the week the financials were going to be settled to the point that they could get an inspector in the house. Assuming it passed inspection, they would be signing for it soon.

There were a few things in his old home in Reefside that he could live without in Angel Grove but as long as he was there, he wanted them to go ahead and bring to his new house with him. There was also the furniture that he would want, but he would pick that up at a later date. He had offered a good portion of the furniture to Hayley, who was living there now, but most of it she told him to take with him. After all, she had her own place with her own furniture that she moved into the house once Tommy decided that he was not coming back.

Forgetting his house for the moment, Tommy opened the door of his jeep and pulled himself out, stretching before heading into the front door of the Cyberspace Café. He found the place to be relatively quiet, although it was Saturday. Mostly the kids crowded the place in the hour's right after school. Saturdays were still busy, but it was nothing like the after school rush.

Hayley glanced up at him as she entered, giving him a small wave. "Hey there silver." She said with a smile. She noticed Tommy's brief look of surprise that quickly faded away. She knew he knew better. Although she had not had a chance to talk to him, all of the Dino Thunder team's families still lived in Reefside and two of them resided there full time for the most part. It had not taken long for Conner to fill her in when he returned.

"I see someone spilled." Tommy said as he walked over and took the seat across from Hayley.

"Conner." Hayley said with a grin as she glanced back down at the device in her hands. "You'll have to fill me in sometime." She said without looking up. She knew that here, with all the people, was not a good time.

"Of course." The former black ranger replied. He would have to figure out how much she had heard from Conner and let her in on the rest of the story. He watched as Hayley continued to stare down at whatever she was holding. A closer look revealed it to be a Kindle. "What are you reading?"

Hayley looked up. "The Luke Kirk book." She said, watching as Tommy raised an eyebrow curiously. "Ethan kept talking about the book and the upcoming movie and the rangers." She finished, lowering her voice at the end. "I wanted to check it out myself."

"And?" Tommy encouraged her to continue. He had all but forgotten about the Luke Kirk book. He realized that was a hard thing to do given its popularity and tendency to get referenced on all sorts of shows.

Back in October, he was in Reefside when he ran into Ethan, who told him all about Luke Kirk's latest book and how he suspected it was written by a ranger. Tommy was skeptical but Ethan had made some good points and he wanted to look into it. If a ranger or someone with connections wrote it for the rangers, he wanted to know.

The day after his conversation with Ethan was the day that they ended up catching Callisto in an orb and almost getting killed by Rhianna. It was a long, stressful chain of events. After they made it through the day, the Luke Kirk book, much like many other things in Tommy's life, was forgotten. He hated admitting that he forgot about it. He was trying not to give the impression that he was still the same forgetful Tommy from high school.

"And I think Ethan may be right." Hayley replied. It was obvious that Tommy had not looked into it yet so she was glad that she took it upon herself to read the book. Besides, Ethan was going to drive her nuts if she didn't. "There are characters in here that parallel some of the things you've told me about your days… in high school." Although she had mentioned the word rangers quietly a moment ago, she still did not want to say aloud that Tommy was one.

"I think it's about time I looked into it." Tommy replied. If Hayley was in agreement with Ethan, it was definitely something that warranted his attention.

"According to Ethan you've been looking into it for four months." Hayley replied raising an eyebrow.

"I have." Tommy said defensively. "I just haven't come up with anything yet."

Hayley chuckled. "I'll remind you." She said. It was a safe assumption that Tommy forgot. If he had really been looking into Luke Kirk's identity for the past four months, he would have found some sort of lead by now.

"Thanks." Tommy replied. Hayley knew him just as well as the rangers he went to school with knew him. After Kim disappeared for her mission in space, he lost contact with all the former rangers. Hayley became the closest person to him. Hayley had been there for him through everything; the rest of his college career, his job with Anton, the destruction of his lab and his moving to Reefside to teach. Plus if it wasn't for Hayley, the Dino Thunder team would not have had done half of what they did.

He caught a customer come in and watched as Hayley stashed her Kindle away and went to serve him. He looked at his watch as she walked off. He would stay and visit a little while longer, then it was time to get back to Angel Grove and his girlfriend.

* * *

Taking a deep breath, Rocky headed through the front door of his Stone Canyon school. It was not that he did not like going to the school. It was that he did not like visiting the secretary of his school there.

Jessica McCaffery had caused trouble for him ever since they first met. When she was in high school, she attended a martial arts seminar that he and the other male rangers were running. She developed a schoolgirl crush on him and she was so attracted to him that she convinced her parents to let her move to Los Angeles, where he and the other rangers were attending USC.

To say that Carri was not fond of Jessica moving there would be an understatement. Carri hated Jessica because she constantly hit on him. Jessica hated Carri because she was his girlfriend and she considered her to be a bitch.

After college graduation, he thankfully did not hear much from Jessica. It was not until almost two years after Carri left that he saw her again. She had signed up for one of the beginners classes at his school. She swore it was a coincidence, but he always knew better. Once she heard he was single, she really went after him. He was lonely and eventually he gave in and said yes.

They dated for two years, up until Carri came back and he rejoined the rangers. Their relationship had not ended well. Jessica caught him kissing Carri and she went after her. He would give Carri credit, she had shown restraint but when she tried to walk away and Jessica went after her once more, Carri broke her nose.

Rocky chuckled to himself. Broke was a kind way of putting it. She smashed it into a million pieces. It took two plastic surgeries to make it look like a nose again and it ended any modeling career Jessica might have had. Rocky felt bad about the situation. Jessica was hurt physically and emotionally and she was poor, and it was his fault for not telling Carri he was dating her. That was why he gave her the job as his secretary in Angel Grove.

Carri was furious when she stumbled upon Jessica in Rocky's school. She threw a fit upon finding out that Jessica worked with him daily. She had every right to. They had recently returned from K's world, a world where the Jessica and Rocky there had a child together. Seeing Jessica there brought that baby to the front of Carri's thoughts. She had no doubt that Jessica would do everything in her power to make that a reality in their world too.

Rocky did not want to fire her; Jessica did not have anywhere else to go. He had hired her before their trip to the other dimension, he had not known about the baby at the time. The only way to appease his own conscious and to keep Carri happy was to move her to his Stone Canyon school. She went without complaint; however that had to do with the raise he gave her.

It was nice not having to see her as much, although she still hit on him when he walked through the doors, even though she was eight months pregnant. He sighed as he walked past the unoccupied front desk and ducked in to look for his head instructor. This was only going to be a brief stop. He had some paperwork to go over here and some things to discuss with the instructor in charge of his Stone Canyon school. However, that would have to wait a few minutes until he finished his last class of the day.

"Rocky." A voice piped up from behind him.

Rocky turned to see Jessica standing there and grinning at him. Wherever she was when he came in, she had returned now. He was almost hoping she had taken off early. "Hi Jessica. How are you?"

"I'm doing well, all things considering." She said with a smile as she batted her eyelashes at him. She was still trying to convince him to want her, still trying to convince him that somehow the baby could be his. She had tried to tell him about a night they slept together when he was drunk but he had not bought it. She was running out of time to think of anything else.

"Good." Rocky replied, not missing the way she looked at him. He was ready to make a quick retreat into the back offices and wait there.

"Oh!" Jessica squealed as the baby started kicking. "Feel this!" she said giddily before grabbing Rocky's hand and forcing it onto her stomach.

Rocky was uncomfortable with the gesture, these days their relationship was supposed to be strictly work related. However, he knew that for whatever reason, she still wanted him. When she started to move his hand around her belly, he yanked it back. "I felt it." He said, forcing himself to smile. He thought on several occasions about firing her, but he was not sure how to justify it. When he first hired her, he thought he could deal with it. Once she got pregnant it got worse, and he drew the line at her trying to convince him they slept together and the child could be his.

He had considered firing her for sexual harassment, because essentially that was what she was doing. However, he was afraid that she would turn the tables, say that it was him harassing her. It would not be the first time she tried to twist a situation to benefit her. Without any proof he had a feeling he would lose his case in favor of the pregnant woman.

Rocky tried to walk off but Jessica stepped in front of him. "You know, Stephanie probably won't be able to be here when the baby is born." She paused briefly and tried her best to look seductive. "I may need you to be with me."

The blue ranger made a face. He did not know what to say. He was trying to avoid the no way in hell answer, but he did not know how else to put it. Jessica had to know he would not volunteer for that. Childbirth should be reserved for those who were most important in her life, and he was nowhere near close enough or comfortable enough to be a part of it. Besides, if he even thought about saying yes Carri would kill both him and Jessica.

Fortunately, his communicator went off. "Excuse me I need to get this." Rocky said as he snuck past her and made a beeline for the back offices. Once the doors were locked, he brought his communicator to his mouth. "Go ahead." He said, grateful for the interruption even if it meant a fight against Arius.

"Arius sent some of his friends to the park. You need to join the others." Billy spoke.

"I'm on it." Rocky replied. He glanced around briefly to make sure the room was secure before he spoke. "Planetary ranger, power up!" he yelled. Seconds later the blue ranger was off to the battle.

* * *

When the rangers arrived on scene, they immediately noticed Arius's absence; however, both Shax and Novax were there along with Keresecks and a monster of some kind. The seven rangers fell in behind their leader. Kim took a brief moment to glance at their newest teammate. "Are you ready to do this?"

A gust of wind rose up in front of the rangers, hurling toward their enemies as it lifted them up and dumped them back onto the ground. "I think I'm good." Jen replied. The only ranger powers she ever held were Time Force. While those powers were good, she could already tell this were stronger than anything she was used to. She was excited to be using them and be back in action.

"My turn to play." Lavock said as he stood. He held his four arms out and shot the fingernail projectiles toward the rangers. He hit his targets and watched as they flew backwards and tumbled to the ground. Once they were down, he reached his hands back and grabbed an assortment of weapons to use for his attack.

The rangers stood back up a bit sore from the first hit, but nothing they were not able to shake off. Lavock started to run toward them but the Earth started to shake and as he was losing his balance, he found himself getting struck by lightning, knocking him down. "That combination never fails." Zhane commented. They had done that on multiple occasions during their first battle as Planetary rangers years ago.

"Guys if it's a fight they want, it's a fight they'll get." Kim said as she called for her planetary weapon, watching as the other rangers did the same. She took a brief second to take in the newest weapon, the Wind Bow, before turning back toward their enemies. "Let's split up and take these guys out."

"Keep your eyes peeled for Arius." Tommy pointed out as he moved forward to stand next to Kim. "If he's not out here, he's bound to have something planned." Arius's not being here worried the silver ranger more than if he was. "I'll take the new guy."

"And I'll join you." Kim continued before Tommy could finish handing out orders. "The rest of you work around and handle the others." The new monster was different; he was standing up with four weapons in each of his four hands. They needed the rangers to focus on him. The others they had faced before. She trusted her group to split up and take them.

As Kim and Tommy rushed into battle, Zhane glanced toward Carri. "I think we have our own unfinished battles." Zhane said, watching as the white ranger nodded in agreement. Shax had attacked him and Novak attacked Carri on their first trip to Earth. Even worse than attacking him, Shax went after Karone, Ashley, Andros and their kids. He did not mind volunteering to fight him.

Seconds later Zhane and Carri were off, leaving three rangers standing behind. "Let's make quick work of the Keresecks. Then we can split up and help the others." Jason suggested. He was not completely sure that was the best course of action, but three of them on the Keresecks should take care of them fast enough. They could keep an eye on the others just in case.

Rocky agreed and ran off, however Jason stopped Jen before she left. "Has anyone filled you in on how to disable these?" he asked.

"I had an orientation." Jen replied. She stayed for a while after she got her ranger powers and let Billy, Kim and Carri fill her in.

"Good." Jason said as he let go of her and the two of them took off.

It was not long before there were several separate battles going on. The black, blue and pink rangers were finding the Keresecks difficult but manageable, as they were able to destroy them slowly. The white and green rangers were having a bit of difficulty with Arius's two generals. They were tough, as usual, and the rangers were taking hits, as usual, but they were working hard to try to stand their ground and not go down.

The hardest battle of them all was the one involving the red and silver rangers. The monster in front of them had identified himself as Lavock, and had said that he was going to be their downfall. Kim had to give him credit; his four weapons so far were more than handling her saber and Tommy's daggers.

Kim powered up her sword and went in for a fire-based attack. Lavock was quicker than she thought. She maneuvered around two of his weapons when a third arm came from the side and knocked the flaming saber away. She saw the fire die out as the weapon left her grip, but before she could run to retrieve it and try again, Lavock wrapped his tail around her.

He was holding her tightly and the ugly creature grabbing her started attacking her with the tip of his tail. It felt as though she was getting hit with bee stings repeatedly. Tommy could not even get to her; Lavock's four arms would not let him pass.

After the first few hits, Kim was starting to feel a bit disoriented. She tried to use her Muirantian powers to teleport herself away, but she could not focus. Finally, a black streak flew through the air and a mace smashed into the tail. Lavock loosened his grip with a yell. With the attacks stopping, Kim was able to teleport herself away, landing at the location of her fallen weapon.

Jason and Tommy ran to Kim's side. "You alright?" Jason asked. They had just finished the Keresecks when Kim got trapped in his tail. Rocky and Jen split up to help the others while he ran in to assist Kim.

"Yeah." Kim said as she made a face. She was fine. She was a little sore but she would recover. "But this guy needs to get what's coming to him." She said as she glanced at the other two battles. It was time to give some of their combined powers a shot.

Kim waited for a second until she watched both Shax and Novak get kicked back. She called to the other rangers, who quickly turned and headed toward their leader. Within seconds, the two generals were standing on either side of Lavock. It was time to show them their power. "Let's blow this guy out of the water." Kim said as she looked around at the others.

"Do you have a weapon in mind?" Jason questioned as he glanced toward Kim.

"Sure do." Kim replied. There were many things that they could do with combined powers to fire on the enemy and bring them down. One in particular involved combining the powers of all their weapons. However, that she would save for later. That she was almost certain would be an overwhelming attack, sending the combined power of their elements out at once. This time she wanted to see what their cannon could do.

"Let's do this." Tommy said as he shifted into what he assumed would be the proper position for summoning a cannon.

The others followed behind the silver ranger and Kim took the lead. "We need the Planetary Cannon now!" she called out.

The cannon appeared before them and fell into the hands of the six rangers. Kim moved into position at the back of the cannon. "Ready?" she questioned, watching as the others nodded. "Fire!" she called out. As she spoke, she used her flame-based attack to start the cannon. In the blink of an eye, the cannon absorbed the fire, the beam started, moving down the line, and absorbing the energy of the other ranger's elements as it went. In a split second, an orange beam came flying out of the end of the cannon.

Shax and Novak ducked out of the way but Lavock was not so lucky. He took the beam square on and it engulfed him, attacking him with more energy than the alien could handle. He fell back and hit the ground, his battle with the rangers ending.

"Good job guys." Kim congratulated her team as they sent the cannon away. However before they could get too excited, Lavock rose and grew until he was city wrecking size. Kim sucked in her breath. As far as she knew, the zords were not good to go yet. "Billy what have you got for us?"

There was a brief moment of silence before Billy responded. "The zords aren't ready yet." He could not send them out, not yet. Maybe if he thought they were fully functional and ready to go he would let them field-test them. However, he was not comfortable enough to say they were at that point yet. Fortunately, after his talk with Trini, he had come back from lunch and come up with a contingency plan that he felt comfortable with.

"You can pilot your old zords though. I made sure they were calibrated to respond to your Planetary powers." Billy continued. It was only five zords but it was the best he could do.

"Thank you Billy." Kim said as she glanced toward her team. "Jen and Zhane, you stay down here and make sure Shax and Novak aren't getting into trouble. The rest of us will use our old zords to finish off Lavock."

As the leader of the old team, Tommy stepped forward and called for their zords. Seconds later the white falcon, red ape, pink crane, yellow panther and black cougar zords came flying toward the battle. The rangers jumped into their respective zords and issued quick individual attacks to throw Lavock off before bringing them together to form the megazord.

As Lavock regained his balance and ran to attack the megazord with all four weapons, the zord called for its saber and tried to fend the attack off. It turned out that was easier said than done. Two weapons would have been difficult, but with four Lavock was getting more hits in than they would like.

Finally, the megazord got what they would consider some sort of advantage. They blocked the two right arms and ducked away from the two left ones. With a kick to Lavock's side, they pushed him down. Lifting their saber, they went in for the final blow.

Before they got to bring it down, Lavock turned and hit the megazord with the tip of his tail, stunning it briefly and effectively ending the attack. As he stood, Lavock knocked the saber out of the megazords hands. After seeing what his tail could do, he used it to wrap it around the megazord and hit the megazord with the tip of his tail repeatedly.

Each hit was causing more and more damage. "We're losing control here." Carri said as more and more functions of the megazord were going offline.

"We've got to get out of his grip." Rocky pointed out. "We're not going to last much longer like this."

The rangers continued to struggle against his tail but were not having any luck. Even if they tried to move, the tip would hit them and stun them yet again, making their situation worse. Eventually the megazord extremities quit responding all together. "Kim?" Jason questioned as he turned toward the ranger in red. "You got anything that can help us here?"

"I'm trying." Kim replied, the frustration in her voice showing through. She had Muirantian abilities, but none that she thought would help destroy him.

Tommy watched as the megazord was reduced to only a few working functions. This was his team's zord and his call. As Lavock brought them in toward him for the final blow, he knew what their only remaining option was. The megazord was already as good as destroyed, there was only one thing they could do. "Everybody back to the surface." He said as he looked at the rest of the team. They stopped what they were doing and stared at him but he did not want to explain, they were not going to like his decision. "Now." He said with a growl.

The silver ranger watched that as one by one his teammates abandoned the megazord. Once they were gone and unable to stop him, he initiated the megazord's self-destruct sequence. He watched as Lavock stared into the eyes of the zord. As Lavock brought one of his weapons back, Tommy exited through the back and went to join the others.

"What good is this going to do?" Jason questioned, pointing a finger up at the megazord as Lavock lunged his weapon forward. Before he got his answer, the megazord exploded, taking Lavock with him.

"Damnit." Kim swore under her breath. She had not wanted it to be destroyed; it was all they had at the moment. She hoped that Billy would get their megazord ready. Otherwise, they would have to pull the Turbo zords or Zeo zords out of storage, and probably sacrifice them as well. She had a bad feeling that none of them were going to have the kind of power it took to stand up to a member of Arius's army.

Kim sighed as she glanced toward the others. "Come on; let's help Zhane and Jen get rid of Shax and Novack." She said as they turned and ran toward the two remaining battles.

* * *

Five minutes later, Arius watched as Shax and Novak returned, once again suffering defeat at the hands of the power rangers. He took a moment to yell at them for their incompetence before sending them out of his sights.

This battle was yet another disappointment. However he did learn several important things from this battle, the first of which being that the rangers had no Planetary megazord. They were using a megazord that was not made for their Planetary powers and it could not hold up against the aliens he had employed under him. In fact, it was so ineffective that in order to destroy Lavock they had to sacrifice their megazord. This meant that they no longer had a megazord, and the next battle that involved him resurrecting a fallen alien would go in his favor.

The other piece of information that came out today was that somehow those rangers managed to find a pink ranger since their last battle. This was not good news for him. This meant that things were going to be tougher than he thought. With a pink ranger, they had access to all sorts of combined powers, such as the cannon that destroyed Lavock the first time.

He was going to have to rethink part of his strategy. With the team complete, this battle was going to be more difficult than he anticipated. There was no way Kaycea would willingly join him if he was unable to overcome her Planetary team. He had to figure out how to bring them to their knees. Fortunately for him, he had plenty of resources at his disposal on this ship that could help him do so.

That would be something he would be looking into soon. First, he had to have a conversation with Deimos. He would not be happy with Arius failing him yet again. It was not going to help matters that they lost yet another member of their army. Hopefully with the good news of the megazords destruction and the unfortunate addition of the pink ranger, Deimos will not come down to harshly on him for the loss.

* * *

The rangers didn't have much trouble getting rid of Shax and Novak and it wasn't long before they went back to the Command Chamber and powered down. Carri was the first one to speak. "I'm going to miss the panther." She said with a sigh. It was just a zord, but it was based on her Ninjetti animal spirit and it kicked ass for her when she needed it.

"It was what had to be done." Tommy said simply. He hated sacrificing the zords; he was as fond of the fighting machines that had been there for them as everyone else was. However, it was their only option and he was not going to apologize for making the decision.

"Tommy's right." Kim replied. She knew the others agreed she could see it in their faces. She hated that it was their only option. Her only problem was that Tommy made the decision and tossed the rest of the team out of the megazord without consulting them, consulting her. It was not worth the argument though and she let it slide.

"They served their purpose." Jen said, as she looked out at all the rangers. They still had Planetary zords that were currently getting built for them. It was a shame to have to lose a functional megazord like that, but they had to move on.

"I was afraid of that outcome." Billy admitted with a sigh. He was not sure if any of the old zords had enough power to stand up to Arius and his army. Those zords stood the best shot. If they pulled more old zords out of storage, he would be afraid they would meet the same fate. However if Arius attacks again tomorrow, there is a good possibility they may have to.

"When are the new zords going to be ready?" Jason questioned. This outcome could not repeat itself too many times before they were really in trouble.

"Soon." Billy replied, watching as the rangers looked at him. "I had initially estimated that they would take another few days to complete, however with today's loss of your old megazord I will work is hard as I can to get them operational faster."

"If you need help let us know." Zhane said. At least he could help. He was the only one on the team without a real job. Working on the zords would be something to do and a way to help the team. Besides, he was looking forward to getting into the cockpit of a zord based on the Nova's technology.

"I would appreciate any assistance you all would be willing to give." Billy replied. If he could get a few more hands, he could get the zords ready faster. He had no problems working on them alone; it was why he had not asked for any assistance before. However, with the modifications he had made, the zords were taking longer than expected. Initially he thought he had time, but now that he knew Arius had the ability to create city wrecking sized monsters he knew his time was about to run out.

"I'm game." Carri volunteered. Lunch was fortunately long over. It actually went well; she just hated listening to Kat praise Chris. Afterwards she had returned to taking care of some work that needed her attention. Work that was now making her cross-eyed. She appreciated the chance to work on something else for a while.

"Me too." Rocky chimed in. If Carri and Zhane were going to work together, he was going to be there. He could not help the jealousy that popped up with the thought of the two of them working together. He knew that they did not care for each other that way anymore, if they ever truly did in the first place. However, Carri had admitted to sleeping with Zhane. Even if they were not together at the time, he still did not like it. "I just have to finish up one thing in Stone Canyon and I'll be here." He hoped by now Jessica had gone home and he could talk to his instructor without her there. He sighed. He did not know why he worried about Carri and Zhane. They were ex's whose relationship was nothing more than friendship on both sides. If Carri knew half of the things Jessica said to him, she would go ballistic.

Jen noticed the disgust in Carri's face when Rocky mentioned Stone Canyon. She was not sure what that was about, but she ignored it and continued. "I'll stay and help."

"I need to get back to Reefside so I can drive back to Angel Grove, but I'll teleport back in when I get back." Tommy replied. He wanted to stay and help, but Billy had a ton of hands ready to assist, and he wanted to go ahead and drive his jeep back tonight so he could focus on everything else, including the zords, tomorrow.

"Jase?" Kim questioned turning toward the man who was like her brother.

Jason nodded his head. "I'm in." At this point, the zords were more important than the work he was doing on his novel or his upcoming date with Emily. He hoped his girlfriend understood.

"Then it's settled." Kim said as she turned toward the former blue ranger. She raised her right hand up and saluted him. "Planetary rangers, at your service." She said with a smile.

Billy could not help but chuckle. "Thank you guys." He said as the blue and silver streaks teleported out. Just having five of the seven rangers here was going to be plenty to get the zords battle ready. He hoped that between all of them, he could have them up and ready in no time. "Follow me; we've got some work to do." Next time Arius attacks, he is going to be in for a surprise.


	6. Embracing the New

**Disclaimer:** The Power Rangers belong to Saban, the Nova Rangers belong to KSuzie, everyone else belongs to me.

Dark Inheritance  
"Embracing the New"

It had been a long absence, but finally Arius was returning to his command ship. Since their last battle, he had been doing some work for Deimos. It had not been work he had been excited about, it had essentially been grunt work.

Although he never said it directly, he knew that this was Deimos's idea of punishment. The megazords destruction was the only piece of news that Arius had shared that somewhat pleased Deimos. The rest of the conversation had been less than unpleasant. Deimos knew that Arius was the best that he had, which is why he was going to continue to let him live. That did not mean that he was not going to make his life miserable.

Deimos had come up with a list of tasks that were usually reserved for those at the bottom of the food chain. The things he had him doing were things that he would not ask anyone underneath him to do. They were menial, demining, and meant to give him a difficult time. He had insisted that he would have been better to stay and plan the next attack but Deimos was convinced he could use the time to refocus. The tasks were more about his suffering than his refocusing. They were a hint of things to come if he did not return soon with Kaycea.

He had left his command center to Shax and Novak while he was away. He had given them permission to go attack the rangers whenever they felt as though it was a good time. Part of him wanted them to succeed. He would be able to bring Kaycea back and return to Deimos's good graces. A greater part of him wanted them to fail. How poorly would it reflect on him if his generals managed to destroy the rangers without his assistance? He risked losing his status in Deimos's army.

Fortunately, for him, while Shax and Novak were good warriors they could not hold up to seven Planetary rangers. While he was away, he got word that they failed at every attempt they made to defeat the rangers. None of the battles were worthy of being considered battles. They would go down to the surface, toy with each other a bit, and then the rangers would destroy the Keresecks and unleash what they had on his generals who always managed to escape in time. They were difficult battles, but the Planetary team coming together had not struggled to win.

He was hoping that his generals accomplished something, besides losing. He wanted the rangers to think that they were running low on ideas, that they had nothing to do but go out there and lose the same tiresome fight repeatedly. He wanted their guard down. When he attacked them again, he wanted them to be unprepared for his army.

He wanted to introduce them to one of the older warriors in his army. His name was, well, he was not sure what his real name was. He was never much for words, never much for sharing. He never told anyone what his real name was; the only record of it was on his home planet. No one was getting information from his home world; the Troobian Empire destroyed it several years ago. Therefore, until he decided otherwise, they would simply call him by his nickname, Zap. How he got that nickname, well, he was going to let the rangers find that out the hard way.

* * *

It was just after lunch and Carri found herself sitting in her office, trying to get caught up on some work. She had a lot going on right now career wise. She had spent the morning rereading the latest copy of the Luke Kirk script. She thought that the changes were brilliant and that she had something that had the makings for a phenomenal movie. She wanted to send it to the director they had officially signed, as well as get it out to the actors that were interested and hopefully sign them as well.

However, she could not do any of that until she got the official seal of approval from Jason. He had gotten a copy yesterday morning and he was taking his sweet time with it. She was encouraging him to have an answer for her by the end of the day. Technically, she did not have to wait; she could give it her seal of approval and pass it along. After all, he signed the rights to his movie away to her and her company. It was only because Jason was her friend that she let him have so much input.

Therefore, while the movie was placed on hold, Carri was spending her afternoon being occupied with other tasks. She had a few show ideas that she wanted to play with some, but first she had her current show to work on. They were almost through filming the last half of the season, so there was not much production wise left for her to do, but it was enough to keep her busy for a few weeks.

The second half had premiered back in January, to ratings as good as the summer season, with a few episodes looking even better. The ratings had been good enough that a few days ago the network signed them for a second season, to debut in September. This was why Carri wanted to start playing with her other ideas. This show was solid, and once the season finished and she got the movie going she'd be able to hand off some of her more hardcore responsibilities and try to get one of her other ideas off and running.

The cast and crew had yet to hear the good news. Carri had been waiting for that night to tell everyone. They had not officially thrown a second half kickoff party, when the season started they had been too busy working and most of the crew, including the hosts, were out on location. She knew everyone would be at home this week before taking off to film the last little bit. This week's episode was going to focus on Sydney and the surrounding area, including a blurb on the little town her family was from, which is why she thought it might be fun to celebrate that night. Then when she got the renewal notice, she knew they had to celebrate that night so that she could share the good news with everyone.

The party was not going to be as big of an event as the show's premiere party was. It was still going to have many people there as the cast and crew were coming with their families, and she was bringing her ranger family, including Jen. She originally was not going to invite Jen, part of the whole keeping who she was a secret, but Kat insisted on wanting to meet her. Kat's excitement got Aisha, who had been invited at Rocky's suggestion, on the meeting Kate bandwagon. Then once she heard Adam and Tanya were going to be in LA and invited them, Tanya joined in the chorus. Even Ashley, who was officially attending as the show's wardrobe provider, wanted to meet the mysterious new pink ranger. After a conversation with Kim, they decided they had to give in. After all, she was officially out there as ranger family now, they would have to introduce her to the others. So tonight would be the first time Kate Collins would come out to the others as the pink ranger.

Hopefully that part of the night was not going to be a bust. She did not think anybody would recognize her as Jen, after all, nobody else knew anything about Time Force. Still, it could easily be a disaster. They were all working on what their story was and they hoped it would go well.

Carri sighed as her phone rang. Looking down she saw her mother's name on the caller ID. She let out a groan. Who knew what her mother wanted with her. Taking a deep breath to prepare herself, she picked up the phone. "Hello mother." She said as pleasantly as she could.

"Carri, dear, how are you?" Rebecca Hillard replied. She knew her daughter well. She was hoping that perhaps she could soften her up, or at least get her defenses down a bit before she hit her with what needed to be done.

"I'm doing fine." Carri replied, resisting asking her what the hell she wanted. Her mother never called her without an agenda. And usually no matter what the agenda was, she hung up angry. "And yourself?"

"Wonderful." Rebecca replied. When her daughter had nothing else to add, she continued. "I was calling to discuss your upcoming wedding."

"Oh." Carri said, making a face. She should have known. Her mother was very concerned with this wedding. Not because she liked Rocky, in fact she did not want her to marry him, but because she could not talk her out of it and it was still it is a Hillard event, scrutinized by the public, and would have to be perfect. Lately her mother had not talked to her much about the wedding though because there was someone else she contacted. "Is there a problem with Gail?" she asked, referencing her wedding coordinator.

"No, things are going fine with Gail." She replied. Gail was good enough at her job; although she was not sure she was quite fit for the event she was planning. However, despite how much difficulty it sounded like she was having, Gail was figuring out how to do everything she asked of her so she let her be. "There's a problem with the lawyers."

"Lawyers?" Carri questioned, not knowing what the hell lawyers had to do with her wedding. "What do you mean a problem with the lawyers?"

"The problem, dear, is that I just got off the phone with them and they told me you haven't called yet to have them draw up the prenuptial agreement." She replied. She thought it went without question that Rocky would be signing a prenup. She was not going to risk that this boy would be marrying her daughter just to get his hands on their wealth. She hoped Carri had enough sense to agree.

"Mom!" Carri exclaimed, quite embarrassed at the suggestion. She had been with Rocky a long time. He had no real idea how much money her family was worth when they first met. Although he had his suspicions, it was not until they visited her parents in New York and he saw their place that he really got the idea. Even then, he didn't care; he always loved her for her. He never asked her for money, he worked hard to make money of his own. He was not rich off his schools, but he certainly did well enough that he would never think of marrying her for her money. "He isn't marrying me for money. We're in love, I don't need a prenup."

"Famous last words." Rebecca said with a sigh. She had seen high society friends fall into the same trap. In the end, they lost everything. "It's just a piece of paper to protect you and if he really loves you, he'll sign it."

"That's like saying I don't trust him." Carri said harshly. She thought it was an insult to ask him to sign a prenuptial agreement and she refused. "I will not ask him to sign a prenup and that's final."

"Carri." Her mother said harshly. She heard her daughter's angry grunt on the other line and she sighed. How had things gone so terribly wrong with her? She loved her daughter but she had not turned out anywhere close to what she had hoped for or wanted.

She supposed it all started when they moved to Angel Grove. Her husband was making money and working his way up the Hollywood ladder quickly. While her husband was working she spent a lot of time socializing, trying to move up the ladder with him, and her kids were left with the nanny more often than not. Then she let them go to public school. That had been a mistake. However, her husband wanted to keep his children grounded.

She did not pay as much attention to them as she should have and the nanny let them do what they wanted. Even at a young age, Josh liked to party, have a good time. And Carri… her daughter made some friends she did not approve of and was into baseball and surfing and all sorts of dreadful things. By the time she realized what was going on, both of them were in too deep. When she tried to pull her daughter back some, she got hit with a rebellious attitude that she did not even know she had. They argued more often than not about what Carri was doing.

Relocating to New York had been a godsend. She thought she could finally control her children, get her daughter on the right track. She placed them in the school that was proper enough to meet their needs, she got her daughter to drop all her previous friends and activities and make new ones. Her daughter started cheerleading and became friends with girls whose mothers ran in the same social circle that she did. She also started dating David, who was the most wonderful boy. She adored David and his family, she imagined the Meyers – Hillard wedding for years. It would have been the social event of a lifetime.

She thought she had gained control over her daughter. However when her brother-in-law moved to Angel Grove, she realized it was not so. Rebellious Carri suddenly saw a reason to come back. She begged constantly to be allowed to return, to live with Kat and go to high school in California. She argued her points over and over again and spent more time on those silly karate lessons that she let her take in hopes they would appease her than she did on her cheerleading. After a year of this, she had enough. Her husband did not see what the big deal was; he simply wanted their daughter to be happy. Rebecca struck a deal with her daughter. If she would continue to date her boyfriend and stay in touch with her friends there, she would let her go. She thought perhaps her daughter could be happy and still be the woman she wanted her to be.

When right before she left she dumped her boyfriend, Rebecca knew she would never get calm, sweet, cheerleader Carri back. Who she was in Angel Grove could not be changed no matter how hard she tried. She knew her daughter was going to bring her temper and her rebellions back to the west coast with her. She thought perhaps that sending her away was for the best. When she failed in Angel Grove, which, with her temper, she gave her in-laws a month before they were shipping her back, she'd put her right into an all girls boarding school. She had the reservation for the school set up but the call never came.

Carri settled back into Angel Grove, doing everything her mother hated her doing. Her brother-in-law let her do it, which bothered her even more. He did not see the point in stopping her from things like playing baseball. As long as she was relatively well behaved, he would let her stay. Then she was off to college where she continued to do what she wanted, and it was not long after graduation that she took off for four years with no notice. Now she was home and marrying an old boyfriend that Rebecca thought was no longer fit for her daughter.

Carri had yet to do anything that she wanted her to do. She had not been able to control her, and with the way things were going she was she knew she never would, but on this one issue she was not backing down. "You will have your boyfriend sign a prenuptial and that's final." She said harshness in her voice that mirrored Carri's when she was angry.

"Fine." Carri hissed, ending the call abruptly and letting the phone slide across her desk. She was furious. There was no way in hell she was giving this one to her mother. She would let her go about thinking she was. At least that would keep her off her back for a moment.

With a frustrated growl, Carri pushed hard against her desk, sending her chair flying back toward the wall. The white ranger stood up and headed for the door. She needed to get out for a few minutes and get some air or she was never going to be able to focus back on her work again.

* * *

Trini paced around in the tiny private bathroom in her office. She was late. She was never late, not this late, not in twelve years. Not even when she was an active morphing ranger and the powers altered her system to the point where even if she had tried, nothing would happen. She was not exactly normal then, but she was not late.

Now she was three weeks late. She had not told anyone, not even her husband. She thought it was all the stress between work and the new team and building zords. She had worried a lot lately, which could easily make her late, but not this late. There were not many things that could explain why she was this late.

In what was probably going to be the longest three minutes of her life, she would be able to check one thing off her list one way or another. She hoped it was that, if it was not, what else could it be? That her system shut down completely, that the effects of the coin finally killed whatever chances she might have.

The thought that being a ranger could have done that to her made her want to burst into tears. At the same time, she knew that if she went back in time, knowing what she did now, she would still take that coin from Zordon and be his yellow ranger. The fate of the world depended on her, on them, and had she not taken that power coin there was a chance that this would be Rita's planet now and that she would not have a future to look forward to anyway. She hoped that being a ranger did not do her in. After all, it did not do Kat in. She may not have had her power coin as long, but she still had one and it still affected her system. Yet she was successful.

She was going to ignore that scenario. She really believed in her heart that being Zordon's ranger had not altered her life course in a way that would destroy everything she ever wanted as a little girl. Zordon loved his rangers; at least she thought he did. He would never allow them to give up everything without telling them the risks first. There were other factors, factors related to the blue coin. Factors outside of her control that could contribute to the general problem, but those factors would not explain her being this late.

So then assuming that the effects of the power eventually wore off, there was only one thing left it could be, one thing that would change her life forever. She did not know what to think. There was no question it was what she wanted more than anything. On the other hand, she was scared; she would be lying to herself if she said she was not. Things had been going at the same pace for so long she was comfortable with them. This, this would change everything.

It was not even changes she was prepared for; it was an entirely new realm of the unknown. It was almost more frightening than when a new villain came down to make a play for Earth. There she knew what to expect. Gather a team of rangers, get them everything they needed, let them kick the bad guy down until either they lost miserably or gave up. No matter what the bad guy and no matter whether or not she and her husband were directly involved, she knew what was going to happen and was not afraid.

With this she did not know what to expect, she really had no idea what she was in store for her. Sure people could tell her stories and give her books to read, but she would not really know what was going on until it happened. She supposed it was the fear of the unknown that scared her. Then again, the unknown was going to bring her a lot of joy in the end. She was as ready for it as she was ever going to be.

The former yellow ranger glanced down at her watch. Four minutes had passed. More than enough time to get the answers she was seeking. Taking a deep breath, she went over to look at the results. She had to blink a few times to make sure she was reading them right.

Two lines. Was this really the answer? She did not know she was not sure that she could be certain yet. After all this time, she did not want to get her hopes up. She knew what she had to do. She would have to try again.

* * *

It was a bit past what was technically considered lunchtime, but it was the earliest that Kim could meet Tommy and their real estate agent for lunch. Kim was the only one of the threesome whose schedule was not open. Their agent could meet as long as she was not with clients, and Tommy was not subbing that day so he was open as well. Kim had an overly annoying boss to answer to in Sandy, and she never thought she was going to be able to get out of there.

Their agent smiled as their waiter took off to fill their orders. "I'm so glad we could all make it out together." Caroline said in her usual perky manner.

"Me too." Kim replied, giving the woman a smile. She was nice enough, but she hoped this impromptu lunch meeting meant that they were almost done working with her.

Tommy glanced at the stack of papers that Caroline had slipped into the chair next to her. "I hope you have good news for us." He said. They had been price haggling with the couple they were trying to buy this house from. The couple had been asking much more than what the house was worth in the first place.

He knew what they were doing. They had asked too much hoping that some needy couple would give them more for it. After all, it was southern California. He loved the house, there were not that many renovations that were going to be necessary to make it what he and Kim wanted. However, he and Kim were not needy. They were not going to pay more than what the house was worth.

They had debated over the sale price with the couple for the first week and they had not gotten anywhere. Fortunately for them, Arius had been around that week. There was the weekend's city wrecking sized monster, followed by a few small attacks with Keresecks, Shax and Novak. The rangers were not really sure what was going on, there was speculation throughout the team that they were testing their powers. The one thing they knew that the attacks did accomplish was to affect the housing market.

After the fight with Rhianna was finished, Angel Grove was peaceful again. Like what happens every time the town grows quiet, the housing prices went up again. Few people are willing to buy in Angel Grove when the town is under attack. Besides the fact that people are afraid for their lives, most citizens do not want to buy a house that very well maybe get trampled on. Those that live in town are stuck. They can't sell when the attacks start and they are forced to pay the insurance premiums that fly through the roof.

The last few months housing prices were reflecting the fact that Angel Grove was once more a peaceful, quiet community. After the city sized monster and the subsequent attacks, residents resigned themselves to the fact that they were under attack yet again. Those who had lived here long enough were comfortable shifting gears, learning to buckle down during attacks and let the power rangers save them. Part of the town shifting back into monster mode was that housing prices started to dip again. No one wanted to move to Angel Grove right now, and the market plummeted in response. It was impossible to say how long the attacks would last and most people were desperate to sell.

The market took a huge dip last Friday, and that was when Tommy and Kim made their latest offer. It was actually less than their first offer but overall it was quite reasonable. The couple had to know that they were lucky to get an offer on the house now, especially since the small attacks continued throughout this week. If they continued to hold out and there were more city-sized monsters, as he expected there would be, they were going to take a huge hit on that house. They had not heard back from them all week. He assumed they were thinking about it.

"I do." Caroline replied smiling sweetly at them. The homeowners had thrown a fit, but she had a feeling someone else convinced them to sell. They were not from Angel Grove, they had moved here five years ago when things were quiet. They knew how long last year's battles lasted. They were warned that this could last years, and they had to decide if they could afford to continue paying two mortgages that long. It took longer for them to decide than she would have thought, but eventually they caved. "They have accepted your latest offer."

"Really?" Kim questioned, her eyes getting wide. She supposed she should not be surprised, they should have wanted to cut and run quickly before things fell even further. However they took so long to debate their last offer, she seriously thought they were going to say no. "And the inspection?"

"Set up for first thing Monday morning." Caroline replied. She had taken care of everything for this young couple. She really liked them, which somewhat surprised her. She had grown up to say it was a sin to move in with someone you weren't married to, but there was so much love between these two she felt like she had to forgive them for that. Besides, if she were a betting woman, she would bet that they will be engaged well before the year is out. "We can go ahead and get some of the paperwork taken care of now."

"But not officially signing for the house?" Kim questioned. The last house they put an offer on had been in such bad shape that they had retracted it immediately. Things had moved so quickly they had not done any paperwork on that house. She wanted to make sure this house passed the inspection with flying colors before she signed anything.

"Of course not, we are just going to get everything ready to go. That way when the house comes back good on Monday, you can sign the dotted line and be ready to move in." she replied. At least she hoped that was the case. If there was anything major they would want the homeowners to fix first, that would be another pain negotiation to go through. She almost hoped the rangers had to destroy another giant monster before Monday, that way prices would drop a little more and this couple would feel forced to do whatever Tommy and Kim wanted so that they could move on.

"Sounds good." Tommy said as he glanced over toward Kim and smiled. "Just tell us what we need to do." It was mostly what Kim needed to do since the house was going to be in her name, but it was still their house. Tommy reached over and snuck his hand into Kim's, giving her hand a little squeeze. Their house. It sounded good to think about it. That was one of his goals as a junior in high school, to one day have a house with Kim. It took a lot longer and the road was a lot bumpier than he expected, but if all things went well on Monday, he would finally achieve that goal.

Kim smiled over at him as she leaned in toward him, watching while Caroline went through a stack of papers. She was feeling cautiously optimistic about this. She felt as though the house had to pass inspection. Then they could get out of the apartment and start a new chapter in their lives. It was exciting; it made her feel like a teenager all over again. She laughed to herself. It had been many, many years since she had been a teenager. It was nice to have that feeling again. She brushed those thoughts aside as Caroline pushed for her attention. It was time to take care of this business and get back to work.

* * *

Jason found himself spending his Friday afternoon the best way he knew how. In his hot tub, drinking beers with his girlfriend. It had been her Friday off and he asked her to spend part of her Friday afternoon with him. Unfortunately, he could not spend the entire day with her. He had work of his own to do, and a deadline that was imposed upon him by a certain ranger that could get really angry really fast.

He did not think she was actually going to say to hell with his opinion like she was threatening too. They were too close for her to screw him over on the business end of things. After all, she promised that she would not do anything without his opinion, regardless of who owned the rights. He was more worried about getting struck by lightning while going out to get the mail if he did not comply. That thought made him chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Emily asked as she watched her boyfriend laugh aloud. They had not been discussing anything really, just enjoying the quiet and each others company. She could not help but wonder where his mind had gone.

"Nothing." Jason replied as he took a swig of his beer. Emily raised an eyebrow and he continued. "Just wondering if I am going to one day get struck by lightning." He supposed he could tell her, after all she knew he was Luke Kirk. However, he was supposed to keep his mouth shut about the movie end of his books, and he did not feel like elaborating right now anyway.

"First off, why in the world are you thinking about lightning strikes?" Emily questioned as she scooted closer toward him. "Second, why would you find it funny if you were hit by one?" She saw nothing amusing about losing the man she loved like that.

Jason looked over at his girlfriend, who had gotten fairly close after that last statement. "What hit me would be funnier than the getting hit part." He said as he leaned in and gave her a kiss. "Don't worry about it though; I'm not going to get electrocuted any time soon." Not as long as he gave Carri his opinion on the script.

"What do you mean what hit you? Call me crazy but I was under the impression that lightning was an act of God that came from the sky." Emily said as she made a face. She thought about it for a moment, and then something dawned on her. "Would this be some sort of monster attack you're worried about? Maybe something you've seen before?" If that were the answer, she still would not find it funny.

It was certainly possible that her boyfriend and his friends, the ones she always called "ranger junkies" would find that scenario amusing for reasons she could never understand. She, on the other hand, did not find monster attacks amusing. She did not even know that she could look at things the way they did if she was on the inside, one of them. They took each battle seriously, yet that still did not keep them from joking about how lame a monster was or how easy it was to take it down. She saw nothing lame or funny about a monster attack that could get one struck by lightning, but it would not surprise her if they did.

"No, we're not expecting any lighting monster attacks." Jason said as he took a swig of beer. He thought about it for a moment and snorted. "More like friendly fire."

"Evil rangers?" Emily questioned with a shudder. Evil rangers gave her the creeps, they always had. To think of all the power they had, all the power they were putting toward destroying everyone instead of protecting them… last time one of her friends was evil she had nightmares about Jason for weeks.

"No, nothing like that. It is just a thought, a joke. Nothing for you to worry about." He assured her as he reached over and put his arm around her waist, pulling her into his lap. "I promise if any of our friends turn evil, you'll be the first to know." He would have to tell her, if someone turned evil and came after Emily and she was not prepared… he was not sure what he would do. How could he hate Tommy or Carri for doing something to Emily if they were evil? He hoped it would be one of them turned evil. If it were Kim… well Emily would be the least of his worries.

Emily straddled him so that she could bring her face close to him. "A joke? I still don't see the humor in getting struck by lightning." She said making a face.

Jason reached around and put his hands on her back. "It was funnier when I thought about it." He said as he pulled her in for a kiss. "Forget I ever said anything."

"Done." She replied, smiling devilishly before leaning in and kissing him passionately.

The black ranger sat up straight and brought her as close as he could to him as he kissed her back. He lifted his hands up her back until he got to her bikini top. The second he popped it off, his communicator chirped. Emily fell back into the hot tub as Jason sighed and went to answer it.

"Go ahead." He grumbled. He hoped it was Arius's bad timing and not Billy's, because he could and would kick the crap out of Arius without feeling bad about it.

"It looks like Arius sent another one of his friends out to destroy us. You need to morph and join the others." Billy spoke quickly. He still had two more rangers to contact; he did not have time to get on Jason about being angry about the interruption.

"On it." Jason said simply. He leaned over and planted one last kiss on his girlfriend's lips. "Sorry babe but I've got to go." He replied as he went to climb out of the hot tub. At least she understood, at least she knew what she was getting into with him. He hoped that trend would continue with her, but only time would tell.

"I know." Emily replied as she watched him exit. This was the first time he had been called off to duty while they were out on a date, although it was not their first date that was ruined. He called one date off to work on the new zords. That was important, she understood that, but she could not help the twinge of irritation that arose then or the one coming now. She pushed it back down. It was old fears, old worries, and old issues coming to the surface. She loved Jason and if she was going to try this, she knew this was what she was getting into. She had accepted that it was a part of who he was, and she had to get over it.

She watched as his hands moved swiftly and he called out "planetary ranger, power up" before a black suit overtook him and he was gone. With a sigh, she leaned back into the hot tub. She hoped that he would be back before she had to leave. If not, they would pick this up another time.

* * *

The seven rangers stood on the battlefield, eyeing down the small army that stood in front of them. Most of the army is what they were used to seeing, the Keresecks with Shax and Novak. However, this time they had apparently brought a friend.

"Is this the best you can do?" Kim called out as she eyed down the freakish looking thing in the middle. She had no idea where the team stood against this newcomer, but she wanted to come off as though it did not matter who he was.

"I think you're in for a surprise." Novak said as he grinned wickedly at the rangers. Zap was a personal favorite of his.

Kim took a moment to strategize but before she could point the rangers in the right direction, Tommy spoke up. "Let's split up." He ordered, not noticing the look he got from the red ranger. "I think Shax and I are ready for our rematch." He and Shax had gotten into a huge battle the last time they faced off against each other. It was one on one until Shax blasted him with some sort of new handheld weapon. They destroyed the weapon, but he wanted another chance.

"I want to see what ugly over here has got." Carri said as she glanced at the monster in the middle. She was tired of fighting Shax and Novak; she wanted to shake things up a little bit.

Jen glanced over at her. "How about we show him why he shouldn't mess with the female rangers." She said. Although the comment suggested it was a girl power fight, it was really all about wanting a different fight. She usually ended up stuck taking out the Keresecks. She was more than capable of taking on other opponents; she led Time Force in recapturing all the mutants and taking down Ransik. She understood this team had been together for a long time; even Zhane had fought with them more than she had. Nevertheless, it was time to prove herself as a ranger.

Kim watched as the monster of the day got swept away into a tornado while being simultaneously struck by lightning. Seconds later Tommy shot past her, Jason followed, the black ranger heading for Novak. She sighed as Rocky and Zhane headed toward the Keresecks before going to join them.

As the red ranger headed into battle, the pink and white rangers had called on their weapons and were preparing to have a field day with the monster they knocked over. He stood and they attacked, knocking him backwards.

He stood once more and glared at them, holding his hands forward as one finger on each hand extended out and transformed into a gooey substance as it coiled around each weapon like a snake and tossed it aside. The two surprised and angry rangers shifted into fighting stance. "The name's Zap." He told them as he looked at them, grinning evilly and crossing his arms over his chest.

Carri rolled her eyes from behind her helmet. "Do you really think you're going to be around long enough for us to care what your name is?" She asked as she tried to see where their weapons had been thrown. It appeared as though he tossed them out of sight; otherwise, she would reach out and snatch them back.

"Don't you even want to know why they call me Zap?" he questioned with a laugh.

"You stuck your finger in a socket?" Jen questioned. She was trying to figure out what his angle was before they ran out and attacked again. The way he snatched their weapons meant there was a lot more to him than what they thought.

"Nope." Zap replied as he held his arms out. All of his fingers extended this time and he wrapped each of the female rangers up in separate hands before they had time to react. He could feel the rush of wind that was about to come toward him. The white ranger seemed smart enough not to electrify him while he was holding them. It did not matter though. Seconds before the wind hit, he sent his own jolts of electricity through his fingers, sending it violently through the ranger's bodies and not letting up. He smiled to himself as the wind died down.

Suddenly a burst of water hit him out of nowhere, causing what was essentially an electricity overload that backfired onto Zap, forcing him to let go of the girls as he fell to the ground hard. He was not the only one that was hurting, as the overload hit the female rangers too and threw them across the battlefield.

Carri lay on the ground, feeling as though her entire body was still shaking. "Water. On. Electricity?" She had trouble getting the words out as she let out a grunt.

"You guys are ok, aren't you?" Rocky asked as he approached the two of them, second-guessing his decision. He saw what the monster was doing; he had to save his teammates, save his fiancé. He did not think about the water blast magnifying his electricity and shooting it through them, although it had accomplished his goal to free them.

"Yes." Jen said simply, the aftershock of Zap's electric treatment starting to wear off. She and Carri started to pull themselves to their feet. "Keep getting him wet while we go retrieve our weapons."

"Not a problem." Rocky said as he went to face the creature that was trying to stand back up. Taking his staff, he twirled it in his hands, creating a water blast that he used to smash the monster with. He stumbled back with the hit, and while it did some damage, it had not been as bad as before. Rocky assumed it had to do with the fact that he was shocking the girls the last time he hit him.

As Rocky went to hit him again, the red ranger appeared by his side, Fire Saber in hand and ready to go. "What have we got here?" Kim asked as she watched the burst of water hit the bad guy. The Keresecks were dwindling down to nothing. Carri had jumped in on that battle, or rather had gotten pulled into what was left, while Novak had caught Jen. Kim decided now was as good a time as any to jump in to the main battle.

Zap took the pain of the water blast head on, willing himself not to fall backwards as the shock rippled through his body. He was aware of the new ranger on the scene, and he stood straight up and glared at her. "I'm Zap." He introduced himself as he went to grab a hold of the two rangers with his electrified jelly like fingers. "And I'm here"

Before Zap could add anything else, the ground below him shook. He lost his balance and his fingers flew back to hit him. A minor shock quickly intensified when he got hit with another burst of water.

"The Keresecks are toast." Zhane said triumphantly as he and Carri moved in to the main battle.

"Good." Kim replied as she glanced at Tommy and Jason's battles. "Zhane, you and Carri go help Tommy and Jason send our friends home. I have a good idea how to keep Zap nice and wet until we can combine our weapons."

The green and white rangers split up to follow the command of their leader. Once they were gone, Kim looked at the remaining two rangers. "Let's put your powers to a little test. Rocky, I want you to hit him with water. Jen I want you to pick the wind up around him so that he is not just getting hit, he is being continuously bombarded on all sides. I don't want him to be able to focus again until we're ready to fire on him with everything."

After Kim explained her idea, Rocky and Jen went to work. They could not keep the wind and water combination consistent, but they were able to keep going back fast enough that Zap was not able to catch a break. It was a few minutes into this exercise that the rest of the team joined them.

"Shax and Novak?" Kim questioned as she glanced over at the rangers.

"Gone home crying." Jason said with a grunt. They left, but not before Novak got a few good hits in. He was pretty sure neither was defeated, just tired of getting hit with the elements and deciding to return to regroup.

"Good." Kim said as she thought for a moment. They could call on the cannon again, it is tested, and they know it works. However if they combined their weapons, they would be able to shoot a blast involving the actual elements and not just the energy from those elements. Rocky's water blasts were effective; she wanted to magnify that power with the other's elements. "Let's combine our weapons."

Before anyone could move into position, Tommy spoke. "We should use the cannon." He countered her. "We're only going to get one shot at this and we know the cannon is powerful. If we combine our weapons and it doesn't work like we want it too, he could start electrifying us again before we can regroup."

Kim crossed her arms over her chest. This was her team, her decision, and she wanted to combine their weapons. Just because it was untested did not mean it was not going to work. Before she could say something to that effect, Tommy called for the cannon, which fell into the hands of the unoccupied rangers. Kim let out a frustrated sound as she walked over to the back of the cannon. She waited until the last possible second before calling for Rocky and Jen, and then they fired.

Zap fell over, destroyed, much like Tommy knew he would. Kim was glad he was gone, but at the same time, she had wanted Tommy to be wrong. She did not get too much time to ponder on that as Zap rose up to new heights.

"Does this mean we get to test out our new zords?" Zhane questioned. He was excited about it. They had not been able to test them in the field yet. They had not had an attack since Billy completed them. They had done some minor testing to make sure all the systems worked while they were in the zord bay but that was it.

"Looks that way." Jason replied as he glanced up at Zap. He has been ready to get his hands on these zords for a while.

"We need the Planetary Zords, now!" Kim called out. She and the rest of the team watched as seconds later seven sleek new zords came barreling toward them. Just from watching them, it was easy to see that they were lighter and more fluid than anything they had ever piloted. The rangers felt like kids on Christmas as they all jumped into their new zords.

Kim took a minute to look over her controls before addressing her team. "Billy has wired these to channel your planetary powers on a large scale." She informed them. In theory the zords would be able to pull abilities through the planetary morphers. "Let's see what they can do, and then we'll try to combine them."

It did not take long before Zap got hit with ranger power after ranger power. He tried to electrify their zords, but between them ducking out of the way and the continuous water attacks, he could not get a hold of any of them.

When it looked as though they had gotten Zap knocked back good for a moment, Kim moved back and ordered the other rangers to follow. "Let's create a megazord and see what these new zords can really accomplish." She said listening as the others spoke words of agreement.

Billy had not really had a chance to test out megazord mode. He did not want to do any testing that involved bringing the zords out in public. They were trying to keep Arius out of the loop for as long as possible. They had tested what they could and done a lot of computer simulation based on the schematics. Now it was time to see if they had gotten it right.

Each of the rangers went through the series of controls used to prepare their zords for megazord mode. The black and green zords became the legs, with the white and silver zords making the arms, pink and blue as the chest, and red as the head. As the zords combined, the rangers were pulled from their individual zords and brought up to the cockpit of the megazord.

"Sweet." Carri said as she got situated in her new spot.

"Can we still use our individual ranger abilities?" Jen questioned as Zap started to stand up. They were going to have to push him back down quickly. The rangers would be in trouble if his electric fingers grabbed the megazord.

"You should still be able to access them through your individual zords." Kim replied. It was a neat function, although they would all have to be able to be on the same page about it. It could be a disaster if they all tried to access their powers at the same time. They had to coordinate what they wanted to do to avoid making a catastrophic mistake.

"Can I give it a try?" Rocky questioned, turning toward Kim who nodded. Rocky accessed his zord, and seconds later, a burst of water flew through the megazords chest, knocking Zap back down.

"Let's not waste any time." Kim said as she moved into position. "We need the Planetary saber, now!" she called out, watching as the other rangers followed her lead. The weapon fell into the hands of the megazord. "Planetary saber, power up!"

Their zord's main weapon worked similarly to their individual power weapons. When powered up, it gave the outward appearance of being on fire, but was actually powered by all the rangers' elements. Zap moved to come toward them but the rangers never gave him a chance as they used their saber to attack, bringing him down for the final time.

* * *

The rangers arrived in the Command Chamber seconds after Zap was destroyed. They were all buzzing about the zord battle they had just been in. They were thrilled with the zords that Billy had created for them.

"Those were awesome." Jason said as he glanced over at his long time friend. "You did an amazing job. Arius doesn't stand a chance now."

Billy could not help the blush that crept into his cheeks. He was used to the others telling him how good of a job he did, yet he still had the same reaction to the compliments. "Thank you. However the bulk of the work was created by the Nova's scientists."

"Yes. But you made a lot of your own improvements, things that their scientists have never thought to play with." Kim pointed out. Billy had done a good job of taking their ideas and running with them.

"Hopefully they will prove to be useful throughout the course of this battle." Billy said. Who knew what Arius would throw at them next? The zords preformed well today, but that did not necessarily mean that they would always be victorious. Their old zords were proof of that. He would have to continue researching, looking for other ideas to help the rangers.

"I'm sure they will." Rocky replied with a grin. He glanced briefly down at his watch. He still had some work to do that afternoon. "Are we good for today?" he asked. He didn't think there was anything new to discuss. The zords worked well and Arius was defeated for now.

"I think we're good." Tommy said. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing else that needed to be done.

"Wait." Kim said, her aggravation with Tommy dismissing her team showing through. He was continuing to make decisions that were hers to make. Dulcea had bestowed these powers to her care. She was the red ranger. She was leading this team long before Tommy was a part of it and he was already driving her nuts by trying to step in.

The rangers stopped and looked at Kim and she smiled at them before she continued. "We are all veteran rangers." She said, trying to figure out how she was going to say this without starting World War 3. "I know we all have ideas on what should be done but we need to discuss major decisions before simply following through on our own. As the red and one of the three original Planetary Rangers, this is my team and my fight and I want to make sure things are done the best way possible."

Carri snorted and Tommy shot her a look. She caught the black ranger out of the corner of her eye who was cracking a smile as well. She was pretty sure the entire team knew what the speech was referring to. They had all seen Tommy step in and make decisions. During Carri's tenure as a ranger on Earth, she had served under Tommy. She knew it would be hard for him to step aside and let someone else lead. She did not know how his Dino Thunder team worked, but she had to wonder if Conner had wanted to throttle him much like Kim did.

"Is there anything that prompted this?" Tommy asked sternly as he turned toward Kim. He was not stupid, he knew as well as the others did what prompted this, he just wanted her to say it. He was just as much a red as she was; he thought he had the right to make team decisions.

Kim looked at her boyfriend and frowned. It was obviously no secret. "I just don't appreciate you jumping in and making decisions that go against what I think is best. I was the red Planetary ranger long before our conflict with Rhianna and I led multiple teams into battle. I was still the red Planetary ranger when we fought Rhianna, but I never once tried to undermine your leadership. Although I think we should all have input, this is my team, I would like that to be respected."

"Fine." Tommy said harshly. It was not worth the argument right now. He was the senior red on this team; he was respected as that by every ranger that had ever held the power. He thought his opinion should count. He knew he would still assert his opinion, but he was not going to get into it with her. After all, they still had to go home together and share the same bed. He hoped they would be able to work together on this. "I know you are the red on this team and I respect that." He said honestly. He did respect her as a red, even though he held on to his status as the senior red.

"Good." Kim said, hoping he was serious. She would have to wait and see if her words did anything to change his attitude on the battlefield. She sighed as she looked at the rest of her team. They appeared to be somewhat amused, with Carri and Jason leading the pack. She would have to kick both of their asses later. "Let's get out of here." She said before she teleported out.

The rest of the team followed, leaving Billy alone with in the Command Chamber with his wife, who had teleported up in case they were going to use the zords. She wanted to make sure that all went well with them.

"I suppose we should get back to our day jobs too." Billy said as he smiled and walked over toward her, giving her a hug.

"Yes." Trini agreed as she pulled back from him, deep in thought. She had tested twice, she was fairly certain of the outcome. She needed to tell him. They both had work to get back to but she simply could not keep a secret like this from him. "I'm pregnant." She said. She watched her husband's face light up before he reached down and pulled her into a huge embrace.

* * *

Arius paced back and forth on his ship, frustrated to no end. The rangers had zords. Zords that could easily take down members of their army. This was not good, not good at all. This changed things. He was going to have to come up with a new plan, something that would nullify the zords.

Like it or not, he was going to have to report this to Deimos. He was already on his bad side; he hoped that he would not continue with his punishments.

With a frustrated growl, Arius sat in his chair. These rangers were keeping up with him. That was quite unexpected. Although with Kaycea, he supposed he should have been prepared. Now that he had a better idea of what he was fully up against, he would be better prepared. This will be the last time he lets her and her rangers get the best of him.

* * *

Jason sat in his house, finishing reading his script one last time. He almost did not get to it. He was too busy thinking about their new zords and what this was going to mean for the rangers. He had to force himself to focus on something other than the rangers though. Emily distracted him for a little while before she had to leave to meet with some friends of hers. Then it was back to the rangers before making himself focus on the script.

He closed the script and started thinking about what he was going to tell Carri. Before he got too far, the doorbell rang followed by a few sharp knocks. He grunted as he jumped up and went to open it. "Bell works you know."

"I heard it ring you know." Carri said saucily as she walked through the front door. She intentionally went with the overkill, that way he knew she was in a hurry. She told her fiancé she was meeting one of her employees before heading over to the party and for him to meet her there. Technically, it was not a lie.

Jason rolled his eyes as he shut the door and followed her into the living room. "Whatever." He knew they were on a time limit. Carri had to be at her party early. Plus he still had to get ready and pick his girlfriend up.

Carri walked in and made herself comfortable on the couch, watching as Jason came in and sat in his recliner. "So?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"So those are killer new zords." Jason said, toying with her. He knew what the expected answer there was; he just was not going to give it.

The white ranger shook her head. She knew he was playing with her. "They are. Hopefully Arius is in for more trouble." Ranger talk was off topic, but she had to agree with Jason's statement. "He seems smart though, he's going to start looking for ways to get around the technology."

"What do you think that means for us?" Jason asked. He was a smart ranger; he had a really good idea where that could go. He just wanted to hear her thoughts on the matter.

Carri sighed. "I think we're going to have to stay on our toes." They had a long battle ahead of them, one they could not lose focus on. Quiet was not necessarily going to mean good. They were going to have to balance their daily lives while keeping an ear out on the universe, not that this was anything new.

"In the meantime," Carri started, moving on to specifically ask the question she came here to ask in the first place, "What do you think of the script?"

"I think it's doable." Jason replied with a shrug. Carri let out a groan and he laughed. "What? Doable is good."

"Doable as in I can start sending it out or doable as in you're going to be a pain in my ass and ask for more revisions?" Carri questioning, giving him a look that rivaled ones she had given her fiercest enemies.

"You're not going to strike me with lightning if you don't like the answer, are you?" Jason asked. He meant it as a joke but the look she gave in return was one that suggested she might actually do it. "You know, I think it's debatable on who's the pain in the ass here." He pointed out as she crossed her arms. "But all that aside, I think this copy of the script will work."

"Good." Carri said, allowing herself to relax a bit. If he had said anything else, she would have given him an earful.

"So what's the next step?" Jason questioned. She always said things would fly once they settled on a script. He was not completely sure what things were.

"First I'm going to get this to the studio as soon as possible." They had to have the official green light from the studio. The executives were eager to be financing the Luke Kirk project. They considered it the next Harry Potter. She was under the impression that if she could get Luke's seal of approval, they were going to go ahead and let the funds start rolling. Her father had helped her company pay for some of the things they had to do to get this moving, but without the studio pitching in, their final product would make Ed Wood look like a cinematic genius.

She watched as Jason nodded, then she continued. "Then we'll get the director a copy so he can start planning ahead, and we'll get the actors who were interested a copy. We need to go ahead and get this cast soon." Fortunately, the celebrities that are unofficially attached to the project had already cleared their summer schedule. They just needed to get the rest of the roles filled out. She hoped that the people they considered were not all taken.

"Are we still good for a summer start?" Jason questioned. There was still a lot to accomplish and only a few months left to accomplish it in.

Carri held up her hands and crossed her fingers. "We've got a lot to get done. I'm just going to have to bust my ass for you to get it done." She watched as Jason nodded. "So don't piss me off." She said sternly as the corners of her mouth twitched up into a smile.

"Damn." Jason grumbled. "Do you know how hard it is to not piss you off?" he asked as she leaned over and smacked him in the arm. "My point exactly."

He watched as she smirked and fell back into the couch. Despite all the grief he was giving her, he was really glad she was the one with his project. When he started writing years ago, it was mainly a way to relive his ranger days and try to get some money out of it. Now he had more success than he would have ever imagined and he was getting a movie. Add to that the fact that he was with Emily again and he was a ranger again. Life could not get any better.

* * *

It was a few short hours later when the white and blue rangers found themselves standing on a balcony with a few tables that allowed for a bit of privacy. As Carri looked out over the forming crowd, Rocky came up behind her and put his arms around her.

"Do you think you should go mingle? I hate for them to think less of you because you're up here with your friends and not down there with them." Rocky said as he glanced at the people who were filing in.

Carri snorted. She appreciated the concern but it was not necessary. "Believe me, there will be plenty of mingling." She had to go down there, announce the second season renewal, thank everyone, and take time to talk to everyone. She was pretty sure in order to spend quality time with the rangers she was going to have to make them stay later. She turned around and faced her fiancé. "I wanted to be up here with you guys first to say hello and take care of the Jen situation."

"There's no situation." Rocky replied. He understood that she was as concerned as Kim was about announcing Kate Collins to the ranger world. However, he thought this was a better idea than keeping it a secret. "Wild force is the only team that would recognize her, and they have been sworn to secrecy since the day she decided to stay. I talked to Cole; his team knows not to give away Jen's secret to the other rangers."

"Yes but"

"Hey guys!" Adam's voice abruptly ended their conversation.

Rocky turned to see his best friend standing there with his wife. "Hey!" he greeted as he walked over to greet the duo, his fiancé not far behind him.

As they started chatting, an Australian accented voice called out an excited hello from behind them. They turned to see Kat coming toward them, Chris in tow. Chris greeted everyone with a warm welcome, except for Carri, which was just as well. She did not have much to say to him. She wished Kat had not brought him, she was the one most adamant about meeting the new ranger yet she brought someone who was not in the loop.

The conversation continued and more and more rangers started to pop in. Kim and Tommy were the next pair to arrive, both just as excited to see Chris as Carri was. Kim filtered to the back of the group, where she could talk to Carri and wait for the others.

A few minutes later, Trini and Billy showed up, both thrilled to no end by the news they had discovered but neither wanting to share it with the rest of the team that night. They did not think this was the appropriate venue. Besides, they just found out, they needed some time for the news to sink in between themselves before it hit the ranger circuit. It would be a huge buzz among the ranger community, and they would lose the chance to share the moment with each other.

Ashley and Andros arrived with Karone and Zhane, and it was seconds after their arrival that Aisha showed up. Jason and Emily were the last of the guests that knew everyone to show up. Jason was running late because Carri ran her mouth for a while. He was cutting it close getting there on time.

The small area that had been carved off for a reunion was quickly filled with people who were mostly past and present rangers. The only one who was completely in the dark was Chris, and they were content on keeping it that way. The conversation flowed freely and loudly in some cases, until the last two expected attendees arrived and everyone grew silent.

Jen looked over at her husband as people were quickly shutting up. She agreed that she was official ranger family now, and that her absence was worse than if she simply showed up. That did not make her any less nervous about how it was going to go though. Kim seemed confident that everything would be all right. Whether or not she was genuine or simply trying to keep her worries at bay, she was not sure. Either way, she found herself once again throwing her future in the hands of the future time guardian.

"Kate!" Kim exclaimed breaking the silence as she and some of her teammates went to greet her. "I'm so glad you could make it."

Jen let out the breath she did not know she was holding. "We would have been here earlier but Wes got caught up at work."

"A Silver Guardian's job is never done." Wes said with a smile. He still hated every part of the idea of his wife being a ranger. They had to keep up appearances though. So far, they had not heard anything from Time Force, with the exception of his normal conversations. Once a month he and Eric contacted Trip to discuss the morphers they still held and any problems they might have had with them. He mentioned the new team to the green ranger; Trip did not seem to have anything interesting to say about it. He assumed that was a good thing.

"So you're the new," Aisha paused as she caught a glimpse of Chris. She was glad she did not just spit it out, that would have been a disaster. "Friend everyone keeps talking about." She finished her sentence.

Chris looked at Aisha oddly. He had not heard much about this Kate person. Either Kat was being kept out of the loop or she was not sharing. Either way he found their behavior odd. Of course, ever since he knew them, he had found Kat's friends to be odd. His wife tended to be odd herself when she was around them. He was pretty sure it was part of some high school thing that he'd never be a part of.

"Yeah, I'm their new friend." Jen replied as she glanced over toward Kim. She was under the impression that everyone here was going to be ranger family. She saw the way that one girl glanced at that man. She assumed he was an outsider, but she would have to figure that out later.

"This is Kate Collins, Wes's wife." Kim introduced her very quickly to the masses. As she did, everyone said hello and approached to introduce themselves.

Andros was the first to say something other than his name. "So you two are married?" he questioned, raising his eyebrow as she nodded her head yes in response. As a red ranger, he had known Wes for a while. He did not know he was married and he did not understand how his wife fit into the rangers, especially as a planetary. Those powers weren't just handed out to random civilians. He would have to talk to Tommy about it later.

Jen did not like his odd reaction, but she had to forget about it as others were coming to introduce themselves. Finally, the introductions stopped, and several of the former female rangers surrounded her. "So, you're from Turtle Cove?" the one who introduced herself as Kat asked.

"Silver Hills." Jen corrected her, watching as she glanced over toward Kim. "It's right outside of Turtle Cove." Jen said, curious as to what exactly Kim had told them about her. She wished she had given her more of a heads up.

"That's a nice area." Aisha commented. She was wondering if Kim knew that Kate was married to Wes. If she knew, then she would think she knew that Kate was from Silver Hills. Although the two towns were close, it was certainly possible that Kim had simply been mistaken. After all, the other Silver Guardian that she knew dated a former ranger from Turtle Cove. He was probably there just as much as he was in Silver Hills.

"It is." Jen said as she smiled over at her. She was wondering how long they were going to play twenty questions. She was not entirely sure what all the answers should be.

"How did you and the others meet?" Tanya chimed in with a question of her own. The girl looked uncomfortable. She hoped it was not all the questions. She was ranger family now; they were just trying to get to know her.

"Through Wes." Jen replied. That was not entirely a lie.

Ashley nodded as she worked on a question of her own. "So"

"Carri." Mollie's voice broke through the crowd of friends as she yelled for her boss.

The white ranger looked over at her assistant, grateful for the interruption. The other rangers were bombarding poor Jen. If they were getting ready to get started, maybe the questions would stop. "Am I up?" she questioned.

"If you want to talk before the show starts." Mollie replied. She caught Chris's glance and made a face, turning before she said anything to him. They had dated during high school and through part of college. She was the last one he dated before Kat. He was a loser and in her opinion had not changed in ten years. It did not help that Carri fed her more recent stories that confirmed the fact that he was still a loser.

"I'm on it." Carri said, grinning and giving her a little salute. She turned toward her friends and gestured for them to sit. "Why don't you guys make yourselves comfortable? I am going to make a speech and mingle some but the show is going to start soon. You guys enjoy. I'll be back."

As Carri took off, Jen was temporarily forgotten while the others positioned themselves to get a good view of everything. The pink ranger sat and noticed that her teammates were trying to sit closer toward her. It was somewhat of a relief. Hopefully the others would forget about her for a while.

There was no doubt that she was out there now, facing the ranger community as Kate Collins. She would have to mingle with them and be friends with them, all the while guarding her true identity. She hoped that this would work, that the others would wholeheartedly believe she was Kate.

History had already recorded that Kate was the pink ranger. Her mentor had all but flat out told her to go return to the past. She hoped that these two pieces of evidence meant that things would be all right, that her safe passage in the past was set in stone. She knew that nothing was certain, but she hoped that the future time guardian would fix things if something went unexpectedly wrong with this mission. She assumed she already knew the outcome and would ensure that things went the way they were supposed to. Then again, she could be wrong. Only time would tell what would become of Kate Collins and the Planetary Ranger team.


	7. Suspicions

**Disclaimer:** All things coming from the Power Rangers belong to Saban. Any mention of K or K's world or the Nova Rangers are creations of KSuzie's and belong to her. All other characters belong to me, and cannot be used without my permission.

Dark Inheritance  
"Suspicions"

Arius sat back in his chair and sighed. It had been too long since he attacked the rangers full scale. He had sent his minions after them several times, and each time they failed miserably. Nevertheless, he was not going to simply send in another worthless alien. They kept failing him, and with the new zords, they would continue to be failures.

He was tired of the failures, and tired of the punishments. His arm was finally getting full range of motion back after Deimos literally yanked it out of its socket. Angry did not cover how Deimos felt with his latest failure that involved Zap's destruction. It did not help that the rangers had new and improved zords.

Deimos was growing impatient. Two months ago, he was happy slowly climbing up the ladder until he had what he felt like was enough pull to reform the empire and take it over. Now it was just within his reach, and he was tired of the answer slipping through his fingers. He needed Kaycea to join him, to become his wife, at least long enough to produce an heir. Then he could destroy her and keep a legitimate claim to the throne.

The key part in that was getting Kaycea to comply. She was too powerful to force to come with him, which was why he was going to terrorize her planet until she did. Of course, it was nearly impossible to terrorize a planet that is guarded by Planetary Rangers. It can be done, but not when those rangers had some of the most advanced zords in the galaxy.

To get the win, he was going to have to get rid of the zords. He spent a lot of time doing research until he finally came up with a plan. They had within their army a demolitions expert, an alien named Torssus, someone who spent most of his time deep underground in a faraway planet. He was a little off center, but he would do quite nicely. If anyone would find a way to blow the zords apart, it would be him.

Of course, there was a delicate balance here. He had to destroy the zords, while not causing any damage to Kaycea. They needed her alive. Her friends he was not concerned with, they could go up in flames with their precious zords.

That is why he worked so hard to come up with a perfect plan. He was going down himself to challenge Kaycea. He was not going to let her anywhere near her zord. Meanwhile, he would send his alien friend, who he had to hunt down and convince to help, after the zords.

This was going to be a suicide mission, although he had not filled Torssus in on that part. As far as he was concerned, he was just coming here to blow up some zords. If Torssus was all there, the thought might occur to him that the rangers were not going to just wheel out their zords for him to destroy. He was going to have to be shot to skyscraper sized to get the attention of the zords, which was going to effectively kill him. Not before he had a chance to make sure those pretty new zords were blasted into thousands of pieces.

This was going to be the only victory Arius would need. Soon Kaycea and Deimos would be married, and he would be first in command of the evil empire.

* * *

It was early in the morning on a Saturday and Tommy found himself hiding in his teammate's office. He knew she would be there, they had a few minor battles that week and she'd gotten backed up. That and her secretary, who was putting in a half day herself, confirmed that her boss would be in shortly.

He supposed he would not really call it hiding. Mollie knew he was here; in fact, she was the one who let him in. They were old friends from college; he was lab partners with both Mollie and Carri. They had taken a two-semester geology course together, the girls to get a science credit and him because he actually enjoyed it. That was why it was easy to talk Mollie into letting him into Carri's office and not telling her about it.

The reason he was trying to be so secretive is because he wanted to ambush her. It was hard to ambush somebody who knew you were coming. Her company was working on a project that he wanted more information on and he did not think she was going to give that information easily.

The information he wanted was on Luke Kirk, the world famous science fiction author whose newest novel was a multi-level success and was getting turned into a movie by Ausus Productions. He told Ethan he would research Luke Kirk months ago but got distracted. After a recent conversation with Hayley, he put it at the top of his to do list, and once she reminded him recently he got on it.

They were all so interested in the books because they reminded everyone of ranger like adventures. Both Ethan and Hayley had said that the book reminded them of tidbits they heard from his high school days. They could not be certain, as nothing they read was a word for word retelling, but they had their suspicions.

Tommy found that it was enough to investigate, and his research took a rather interesting turn. As Ethan had said, there was not anything more on Luke Kirk that what someone could find on a book jacket. There were two pictures of him online, one that was in his first books and one he used for this last book. None of that information was helpful.

His books had fan clubs, had been on talk shows and in papers, but nobody knew who the elusive Luke Kirk was. He never showed up for interviews. Occasionally someone would talk to his publisher, but that was as far as the direct contact went. There were rumors that perhaps Mr. Kirk was an agoraphobic, but those were unsubstantiated.

As far as Tommy was concerned, everything about Luke Kirk was unsubstantiated, even the fact that he was a he. It could very well be a female masquerading around as Luke Kirk. The one thing that he did know was that Luke Kirk recently came into a good bit of money. He sold the rights to his most recent release to a production company, a company that would get first dibs on the rights to all his other books. There were tons of companies out to buy the rights to the Luke Kirk books. New Line, Paramount, Tri Star… the list of top name companies that wanted the rights to make his book into a movie was long.

Yet despite all the major companies that were after his books, Luke Kirk settled on a smaller company, one that was not established, and one that only had one credit to its name, a television show that was only halfway through its season. He chose Ausus Productions. No one in the industry understood why he would have chosen Ausus. Its parent company would have been a better choice than the new, small production company would. Many people thought Ausus may do great things in the future, but no one understood how it could have enough pull to land the Luke Kirk books.

Ausus was Carri's company, and if he was not suspicious that a ranger was involved with the Luke Kirk books before, he was now. After all, rangers took care of other rangers. It would not surprise him if a former ranger or someone who knew the former rangers purposely chose Carri to help give her company a boost. What did surprise him, and upset him, was that it was being kept a closely guarded secret. If someone was using ranger adventures to springboard a franchise, he deserved to know.

Tommy sat back in his chair, deep in thought as the door opened. It slammed shut and the white ranger turned, jumping and cursing under her breath as she saw him sitting there. "You shouldn't scare a ranger like that." She grumbled as she went to sit behind her desk. She did not appreciate the surprise. Mollie never let people into her office; her first instinct was to jump into ranger mode.

"I'll keep that in mind." Tommy replied. He had not thought that she might try to attack her intruder. Then again, she did have good ranger instinct; there were not many reasons for someone to be hiding, waiting to pounce on her in her office.

"So." Carri said as she gave him a hard smile. It wasn't that she did not like Tommy. She and Tommy had been friends since high school. They did not always see eye to eye and she tended to clash with him, but they had still been through a lot together and were still friends. That did not mean he had a right randomly surprised her in her office. "What brings you here today?"

"I need to talk to you about your company." Tommy said. He was not sure how exactly he was going to ease Carri into this conversation. He did not think she was going to be excited to hand over the information, especially considering the fact that she has been hiding it up to this point.

"My company?" Carri questioned, raising an eyebrow. There was nothing about her company that involved Tommy, there was nothing he should be asking about. Other than the general how are things going questions he asked when they saw each other socially.

"Yes." Tommy replied simply. "I wanted to ask you about a project you were working on."

Carri smiled at him, hiding her concern. She only officially had two projects and Tommy knew all about the television show. "My show? Or one of the new show ideas I'm working on?" she asked sweetly.

"No, it's not about a television show." Tommy said, smiling back at her. "Actually I wanted to talk about the movie your company got the rights to."

"Oh." Carri said. It was what she was afraid of. She had not talked to any of the rangers about the movie, except for Kim and Jason. Not even Rocky knew much, except that she had a movie she was working on that she wasn't allowed to say much about yet. It was not that far from the truth, officially she couldn't say much until everyone was signed. "Sure. Although I don't know what I can say, at the moment it's top secret." She said jokingly.

"That's fine, I just have one question." Tommy replied. He was fairly certain that this question was considered top secret, but that wasn't going to stop him from asking and demanding an answer. "I read that the movie is based on the Luke Kirk books."

"Yes." Carri replied. That she had to answer, it was not a secret. Luke Kirk signing away his books was a big deal; he could Google it and find the answer in seconds. "I haven't read the books myself, but the newest one is a best seller. It's a huge deal for us."

"I'm sure. I've heard a lot about the books." Tommy said. "What I couldn't figure out was anything about the author? Who wrote the books?"

"Luke Kirk." Carri said with a shrug. "Look, you probably know as much about him as I do. A few book jackets and what they've said on the news." She said nonchalantly. She leaned forward in her chair. "Between you and me, he's agoraphobic. Apparently nobody outside his publisher has seen him." If he suspected Jason, he was never going to let up on this. It could be a disaster.

"I know all that." Tommy said as she leaned back in her chair. "I don't think Luke Kirk is the name of the author. I think someone is writing under that name."

Carri shrugged. Crap. Tommy was suspicious. This was not good. "If someone is, I don't know. I've only had contact with his publisher." In public anyway. She officially made the deal with his publisher, as far as everyone is concerned he is the only one she has talked to in relation to Luke Kirk.

"I disagree with that." He said as he sat up strait and crossed his arms. "If you look at the books, they read like they are related to ranger activities. Then a small company with next to nothing on its resume sweeps in at the last minute and lands the most popular book in the country? I think they were written by a ranger or someone close to the rangers, and I think you know who."

Carri leaned back and laughed. It was the only response she could think of. Well not the only one, but the only one she thought she could pull off against Tommy. "Look I'll be honest; I don't know how I got the deal. I stuck my foot in there and started pushing numbers to the publisher and the next thing you know I was signing a contract. I thought I was just persuasive. You know how good I am at making my point. If it is a case of rangers taking care of each other, it's a secret benefactor."

She was not sure if he was buying it so she continued. "The ranger community is a small one, we both know that. If a ranger was writing the books there's no way somebody wouldn't know something." Somebody like Kim or Carri.

"I suppose you're right." Tommy said with a frown. He was certain that she knew more than what she was letting on. However, she was one of the few rangers he would not be able to intimidate. He could not force the information out of her.

"Now, it was nice of you to stop by, but I've got a lot of work to do. Arius is keeping me good and behind." She said with a smile, praying he would get up and leave.

"Of course." Tommy replied as he stood. "I am going to keep looking into Luke Kirk. If you hear anything, let me know." He said, giving her a smile. He hoped she knew he was still suspicious of her.

"I will." She assured him as he left. Once the door shut, she leaned back into her seat with a sigh. Tommy was looking into Luke Kirk. This was not good.

* * *

Billy sat in the Command Chamber, waiting for Kim to teleport in. She had a few ranger related errands to run, and then she was going to stop by and see the new motorcycles. He had just finished them last night. He was quite proud of them; he thought they had come out better than the ones that the Nova's used.

He was hoping to have them done sooner, but he had been distracted lately. It was a good distraction though. His wife was pregnant. It was something they never thought would happen. They were thrilled. They had known for two weeks now, but they had not told the others yet. They were going to, but he wanted to run tests first and make sure everything was good before they started spreading the news.

He was not sure how this pregnancy was going to go. Neither one of them were exactly normal after being exposed to the morphing grid, among other things that had happened to them as rangers. So far, things looked normal, but it was early yet. They had promised each other they would not worry though, after all, Kat had a baby and she had been exposed to the same sorts of things they were.

After a follow up set of tests yesterday, they decided they felt comfortable enough to tell the others. They were just waiting to get everyone in the same room. Hopefully they would have an opportunity in the next day or two. They wanted to make sure to tell the team first, and then they would call Zack and tell him personally before the news hit the ranger circuit. It would spread through the ranger community faster than they knew what to do.

It was exciting. They were finally going to be parents. Billy was close to giving up on natural methods of conception, but he was glad that he did not. This was the best thing that had ever happened to them. He smiled to himself as a red light appeared in the room, dissolving into the form of the red ranger.

"Sorry I'm late." Kim said. She spent some time meeting with Elemi, discussing things throughout the galaxy and what the Nova's had heard about their battle with Arius. Then she went to work with Ninjor then Mystic Mother, and even with bending time, she got back later than she expected to. They were going to have to hurry through the cycles; she was pushing it to get back to Tommy in time to make their lunch date.

"You're not that late." Billy assured her. He had not been there as early as he thought; he spent some extra time with his wife. Kim's slight tardiness was no big deal.

"Still." Kim said with a smile. She knew Billy did not mind waiting a little bit, but she hated to keep him. "So, let's see these cycles."

Billy headed over toward one of the consoles. "Let me go over the specs with you first, and then we'll go down and take a look at them." He took a few minutes to pull up the blueprints for the motorcycles so he could show Kim a few things before they got to the cycles themselves.

"Alright." Kim said as images came up on the screen. "What have we got?" she asked as the alarms started going off. Kim turned and Billy went to see what the disturbance was.

Billy crossed his arms over his chest as he got a good look at where the disturbance was coming from. "It's just Camille." He said absentmindedly. "Nothing we need to worry about."

Kim looked at him blankly. He seemed quite unconcerned about whoever this Camille was and that bothered her. She felt wildly out of the loop and he needed to fill her in quickly. "Who's Camille?"

"Oh." Billy said, the thought occurring to him that they had not gotten that far in their conversation yet. She just appeared yesterday, and with everything else going on in his life, he was going to wait until today to fill Kim in. "She's Dai Shi's assistant. He escaped yesterday and started attacking Ocean Bluff."

"Great so there's another serious force of evil we need to worry about?" Kim questioned with a groan. She had enough on her hands with Arius.

"Not really. Three Pai Zhuq students are using the morphers I made." Billy said as he gestured to the viewing screen. TJ got in contact with him three years ago, and TJ was friends of a friend of a friend, or something of that nature, who knew RJ. The man who he assumed is the rangers mentor wanted morphers made just in case Dai Shi was ever set free. He spent a lot of time working on ideas that would appropriately use the abilities of the Order of the Claw. Working on those morphers turned out to be a good call. "They seem to be handling things well enough so far."

Kim watched as the trio whipped out their morphers and jumped into ranger mode. She let out a little giggle. "Sunglasses?"

"With today's teenagers I felt it most appropriate to issue sunglasses. That way they could blend in and keep their identities a secret." Billy explained. He had debated several devices that could be used to tap into the morphin grid. He finally decided that those were the least obvious of the bunch.

Kim suddenly got an image of teenaged Billy wearing sunglasses as morphers and had to resist the urge to burst into a fit of giggles. Despite how silly it seemed to her, after all, she was used to the old school morphers; it was an ingenious way to disguise them. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she got back to the rangers. "Were you going to tell me about these new rangers?" she asked seriously. She deserved to know. She had heard little bits and pieces of information about Dai Shi and those guarding him in her travels, and he did not sound like someone they wanted free.

"I had every intention of filling you in on the Jungle Fury team after we were done with the cycles." Billy assured her.

Kim nodded. She supposed it was the Order of the Claw's problem, not theirs. After all, they didn't step in last year when Andrew created a team to clean up the mess that he accidentally created. Not that they could have if they wanted to. "Keep me filled in if you hear anything important about this team." Kim said as she gestured toward the viewing globe. "In the meantime, let's take a look at these cycles."

"Of course." Billy said as he turned his attention back toward the schematics for the cycles. "The team is really going to like these." He said with a grin as he proceeded to go into detail.

* * *

Jason sat on the phone, having a lengthy conversation with Emily, who was out of town that weekend at a conference that her job sent her to. She was doing most of the talking, while he was enjoying a beer and adding in a response when appropriate. They were going to have to hang up soon, he had promised to show at the grand opening for Rocky's new school that was later that day, but for now, he was enjoying the conversation.

"Anyway, to say it is boring would be an understatement." Emily finished her story with a sigh. She could hear Jason's sounds of acknowledgment and she continued. "I want the weekend to hurry up and be over with so I can get home." Not that she was going to be done with the conference; she still had to give a full report to her colleagues when she got back to work.

"When you get back we'll have to go out to dinner." Jason commented as he took a swig of his beer. Before Emily could reply, his phone beeped in his ear and he glanced briefly at the cell's display. He let out a frustrated grunt as he put the phone back to his ear. It was Carri. Again. She had been calling him all morning. He elected to call Emily back first. This was her third call since he had been on the phone. What was so damn important, he did not know. She was not leaving messages.

"What is it?" Emily questioned, alarmed by her boyfriend's response.

"Carri's calling. Again." He grumbled. He was going to have to talk to her; it was obvious she was not going to leave him alone.

Emily glanced briefly at the clock. "You should answer. I have a seminar I have to be at in twenty minutes anyway."

"Yeah." Jason said with a sigh. "I'll talk to you later." He waited a brief second to hear her goodbye before he clicked over to his incoming call. "What?" he greeted the white ranger gruffly.

"There you are." She said harshly, happy that he finally answered. She had been trying to get a hold of him ever since Tommy dropped by. "You know the world could have ended by now and you would have no idea."

Jason could not help but snort. "If the world was ending you would have paged me." He quickly pointed out. "And since you didn't page me and you didn't leave a voice mail, I assumed the world wasn't ending."

"Maybe not in the grand scheme of things, but your world may be turned upside down." Carri replied. She knew Tommy was not going to be satisfied with her answer, he was going to keep pushing until he got to Jason. The black ranger needed to be prepared.

"Ok." Jason said cautiously. What Carri had found out on a Saturday morning that might turn his world upside down peaked his curiosity the say the least.

"I had a visitor today." She said simply. He took this long to pick up the phone; she was going to keep him on the edge of his seat.

"A visitor?" Jason questioned with a sigh. She was not just going to get to the point.

"At my office." Carri said, pausing for a second. "Asking about one of my projects."

"One of your projects?" Jason asked, waiting for her to make a noise of agreement. "I assume the reason you are calling me is because it's more about our project." It had to be something important about the movie if she was calling him like that.

"Yes." She confirmed. "Actually it wasn't as much about the movie itself; it was more about the books. About the author of the books."

"So then what did your visitor want to know?" Jason asked. He did not like people asking about Luke Kirk. He wished people would just take Luke Kirk at face value, but he knew that was not going to happen.

"Who wrote the books." Carri said simply.

"And you told them?" Jason questioned, his voice trailing off. He was getting aggravated with the way she was feeding him information. She needed to just spit it out.

"I told my visitor Luke Kirk." She assured him. She was not going to be the one to bust his secret, especially not to Tommy. "But my visitor suspects that Luke Kirk is just a cover."

Jason threw his hands up in the air. "I give up. Who was your visitor? Someone from the media?" She was withholding that piece of information on purpose. He was not going to truly know what kind of situation he was in until she spit it out.

She snorted. "I wouldn't be this concerned if it was a reporter." She said. When a few seconds went by and Jason did not respond, she continued. "You want to know why I thought this information was immediate need to know? Because my visitor was Tommy."

"Crap." Jason said with force. That was the last person he wanted looking into Luke Kirk. "Does he know anything?"

"With certainty? No." Carri said. "But he's got a lot of suspicions." Too many. He was going to get to the bottom of this and he was going to give them all an earful. "He's fairly certain the real author was a ranger or was related to a ranger because of the material in the stories. Plus my tiny company with one TV credit under its belt got the movie deal. He thinks its rangers helping each other."

Jason let out a low groan. Leave it to Tommy to put the pieces together. "Did you throw him off track?"

Carri couldn't help but snort. "Tommy's not stupid." She pointed out. "I did give it a try though. I told him I had only met with his publisher and if Luke Kirk was throwing me a bone, I did not know who was doing the throwing. Then I pointed out if the author was a former ranger, someone in the ranger community would know."

"And he didn't buy it?" Jason asked with a sigh. Of course he didn't. If he was certain he was right, Tommy was not going to let it drop.

"Doubtful. He backed off of me, but I'm not sure if it's because he believed me or because he knew I wouldn't give into the questions just because he's Tommy." She replied. "Either way it doesn't matter, he said he was going to keep looking into it and for me to tell him if I heard anything."

"Shit." Jason cursed once more as his mind started running. He needed to figure out what steps, if any, he could take to throw Tommy off the trail a bit. Maybe he could try to reel in Luke Kirk a little more, keep Tommy away from any more information. He could release something to throw him off, but after Carri's conversation with Tommy this morning, a new flow of information was going to look suspicious. It was almost easier keeping his Power Rangers secret over keeping the Luke Kirk one at this point.

"See you shouldn't have ignored me all day." Carri said, although her tone of voice suggested she was not gloating as much as she usually would. She was not afraid of Tommy, but this was going to be a mess when, not if, he found out and she did not want to be on the wrong end of that one. Then there was Kim. She and Tommy had been going strong the last year, despite the disagreements over leadership. She was going to kick Jason if his secret identity wrecked that. If Tommy found out, they could probably keep Kim's name out of it all together, although she doubted her best friend would let them take the fall alone.

"Yeah." He agreed with a sigh. Although his day would have been much more pleasant had he not found out. He glanced over at the clock on the wall. "You heading to Turtle Cove?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I was going to leave here in a few." She replied. Rocky had headed up to his new school early to get things ready. She did not even bother trying to go with him; she had too much work of her own to get done.

"You want to ride up there with me?" Jason asked. Rocky had left already, and as far as he knew, so had Tommy and Kim. Tommy wanted to take Kim to some restaurant up there for a late lunch that Cole had suggested.

"Sure." Carri said as she glanced briefly down at the papers in front of her. "Give me five minutes and I'll head out to your place."

Jason and Carri said their goodbyes and he hung up the phone. He was going to have to forget about this Luke Kirk problem for now. He was getting ready to go see Tommy; he could not give him any reason to be suspicious. Maybe the world would do him a favor, and Tommy would not find anything and would give up. Jason let out a small laugh. That would be a miracle.

* * *

It was getting close to time for the official opening ceremonies for Rocky's new school. Tommy and Kim were standing together in the parking lot, having just finished their lunch at a nice restaurant that was recommended by the red Wild Force ranger. There were a few random people gathering. It was still too early yet for people, although from what he understood they were not expecting a huge crowd.

He was surprised by the lack of rangers. As far as he knew, their team was coming out to support the new school opening. In fact, it was his understanding that there was going to be several rangers both past and present there. None of the rest of them were here yet, not even Carri, who he thought would have been the first one there.

Perhaps his conversation from that morning got to her more than he thought it would. Maybe she was slow moving after that, which is why she was late. Before he could ponder too much on that, a red Pathfinder pulled into the parking lot and four rangers climbed out.

"Hey!" Kim called out to their teammate and the group he was dragging behind him. "I didn't realize you were bringing a crowd."

Zhane let go of his girlfriend's hand as they stopped in front of the duo and he shrugged. "They insisted on coming."

Ashley grinned at her employee. "We have to support all the rangers in their endeavors." She said. She thought about going, and was surprised when her husband got behind the idea. It wasn't that that he did not like supporting the other rangers, but he usually was not the first in line to run out and socialize.

Andros nodded in agreement. Although truthfully that was not the reason he came. He really wanted to talk to Tommy for a few minutes. He had not had the opportunity to see him since Carri's party, and he was hoping if he showed up early enough he could get Tommy aside for a few minutes.

"That's great that you showed up, I'm sure Rocky is going to appreciate it." Kim told them.

Karone looked over toward the building, where a ribbon was tied across the front door but there was not anybody standing there. "Do you guys know what time they are getting started?" she asked. Not that she had anywhere better to be, but she wanted to get back to seeing what she could discover on Arius. It was the least she could do for Zhane and the team, seeing as how she was not selected as a ranger. Besides, she wanted to keep Kim from becoming evil and keep the empire from reforming as much, if not more, than everybody else. So far, she had not come up with anything of use.

Tommy glanced briefly down at his watch. "According to Rocky, they are going to get started in about fifteen minutes."

Andros made a face. He needed to go ahead and get Tommy aside. "Tommy, before I forget, I wanted to show you something." That was not so odd. He did do intergalactic work, and he had worked with Tommy before, so the fact that he wanted to show him something was believable.

"Ok." Tommy replied. He assumed it was something ranger related. Those were the only kind of conversations he and Andros ever had.

Andros leaned in and kissed his wife. "We'll be right back." He promised as he led Tommy toward his car. He went to the other side of his SUV, making sure they were out of view of the other rangers.

"So what is it that you need to show me?" Tommy questioned.

"Actually, it's more ask than show." Andros replied. He needed to get straight to the point; they were not going to have much time. "I wanted to know what you know about your pink ranger."

"Kate?" he questioned as the former red ranger nodded his head yes. "She lives in Silver Hills and is married to Wes. Other than that, we are just getting to know her."

"How did she get the powers?" Andros asked. If Tommy did not know, it was something they would have to look into it. These were Planetary powers they had to be earned. There was a reason why Kim only let former rangers try for them. Only former rangers or someone of that nature would have done something that would allow them to connect to the Planetary morphers and harness that kind of power. There had to be more to Kate's story.

"She's married to Wes; she knows he is a ranger. After she heard about the morphers, she asked if she could try." Tommy said with a shrug. Letting Jen be their pink ranger was a bad idea and he knew it from the beginning. If Andros got suspicious and the suspicion spread, things could get documented and Time Force could be alerted, then they would come down here and yank Jen back to her correct time. They should have just sent her home to begin with to avoid all this.

"That doesn't make sense." Andros said quickly, watching as Tommy looked blankly at him. "I don't know what Kim told you or what you know about the Planetary powers, but they wouldn't be given out to just any civilian. There is more to Kate than what you are disclosing."

Tommy thought for a moment about how to respond to that. "If there is I don't know about it."

"Then we need to research it. This may be important." Andros said as he started thinking about the best way to start.

Tommy shook his head. "It's possible that Kim knows something. After all, she did let Kate look at the morpher."

"We should ask her then." Andros said simply. They had to find out the answer.

"If she knows something, she's not sharing." Tommy spoke quickly. This was the last thing he needed today. "She got the powers from Dulcea, she works with Mystic Mother, Ninjor, and God only knows who else. It may not be her secret to share."

Andros raised an eyebrow. This did not sound like the Tommy he knew. The Tommy he knew was the leader, and would not let Kim slide on keeping secrets like this. "We should still ask her."

Tommy grunted. He was going to have to tell Andros. He was probably the only ranger on the planet who knew enough about other worlds and other morphers to get suspicious. He had worked with him before, he trusted him. "Look, I'll tell you, but this is top secret, you can't tell anyone, not even your wife." He said sternly.

Andros gave him a look. He had been all around the galaxy, he had kept plenty of secrets for people in higher positions than Tommy and the silver ranger knew that. "What's the situation with Kate?"

"Her real name is Jen. She's former Time Force pink." Tommy admitted with a sigh.

"Time Force?" Andros spoke as loudly as he could without letting anyone else hear their conversation. "You know as well as I do she doesn't belong here. Time Force was only allowed in our time to retrieve Ransik; they were supposed to return home."

"Believe me I know. And I've made the point to Kim, but she's not listening." Tommy said. He was glad to be speaking with someone who agreed with him on the issue.

"If Time Force catches her here…" Andros let his voice trail off. Who knew at what point in the time line they would return to yank her from.

"I know." Tommy said simply. "But Kim's right, the pink morpher accepted her. We need her here. If we call her Kate, Time Force will not have a record of Jen. Kim doesn't want to risk them yanking her out before she takes the morpher, and us losing this campaign because of it."

Andros thought for a moment. Kim was right, but that did not mean he was comfortable with Jen being here. However, his family, the planet, the galaxy… all that was at stake should Arius win and Kim embrace her dark side. Perhaps it was selfish, but he cared too much for Ashley and his children to risk letting Time Force find out about Jen. "You have my word that I won't expose Jen's secret." He assured his fellow ranger.

Tommy nodded. "Thank you." He said as he glanced around the back of the car. "Now, let's get back before the others start to get suspicious." He said as he turned and led the way back to the others.

* * *

Rocky stood to the side of his school, waiting for the rest of his staff along with Cole to arrive before he started his speech and officially opened his school. His cell phone beeped and he pulled it out of his pocket and read his text message, letting out a disgusted grunt before deleting it.

The message was from Jessica, who had her baby the night before. She had sent him several picture messages, saying how adorable the baby was and how he could pass as the father. Those were the tamer of the messages. She had sent some that were more than a little suggestive, regarding fun things they could do if they played house together.

He was deleting them as fast as he was getting them. If Carri accidentally saw those on his phone, she would flip. It did not matter if Jessica was full of shit and he was not listening to her. The fact that she was sending him those kind of messages would get her pissed enough to drive over to the hospital and confront his ex-girlfriend. Then someone would end up with something broken. Again.

Rocky groaned and leaned against the brick wall. Jessica was working her hardest to make his life a complete mess. He sighed as a chipper voice called out "hey Rocky!" Standing up straight, he turned to see Cole and Alyssa heading toward him, along with his new part time administrative assistant Melinda and his full time instructor Dean, all wearing school t-shirts.

"Hey guys." He called back as they approached him. "Are we ready to do this?"

"As ready as I'm going to be." Dean said with a smile. He loved teaching and he loved his students, but public appearances like this were not really a favorite of his.

"Looks like the crowd is here." Alyssa said with a smile. There were a lot of students and parents from her elementary school, where she had been promoting Rocky's school to get the kids interested in self-defense. Cole had gotten some of the people he knew throughout the community to show up, and there were scattered people who had gotten interested from the flyers that had gone out. Then the rest of her team came, along with Eric, who convinced some other off duty Silver Guardians to come with him, and Jen, who came as Eric's "cousin". Add in the local paper and a local news station, overall it was a good turnout.

Melinda glanced down at her watch. "It's getting close to time. Are you ready?" Rocky was giving a speech, and then cutting the ribbon and it was off for sign-ups. She was excited about this opportunity. She just had a baby and she was looking for something part time to supplement their income to help with baby expenses. She had been an administrative assistant before she got pregnant and she was good at her job. Her old company closed, but fortunately, her husband had a good enough job that she did not have to worry about work until now.

"As ready as I'm going to be." Rocky said as his phone beeped again. He looked at it briefly, deleting the text before turning the phone off completely. She was the last person in the world he needed to think about right now. "Let's go out there and greet our potential customers."

Rocky took a deep breath. He was not too nervous; he had done this three other times before. Nevertheless, there were always those few nerves that showed up that he had to shake off. He let his breath out and he felt some of the nerves disappear as he headed toward the front entrance of the building.

As Rocky and his team approached, the small crowd grew silent. He looked out over everyone until he spotted his fiancé, who was wedged in between Kim and Jason. She must not have been there long, otherwise he assumed she would have come to say hello. It was just as well, he was busy deleting texts from Jessica anyway.

"Thank you all for coming out today." Rocky said as he smiled at the audience. "I appreciate all the support from the community and I can't wait for my team to be able to share our knowledge with you at our newest location." He paused as the audience smiled back. They were warm and receptive, and he easily launched into his small speech.

It did not take long. He touched briefly on their mission and what they could expect from his school in this community and what they had to look forward to if they signed up as students. He did a quick demo with Dean, displaying a few basic moves each, then he gave a special thank you to the support from his friends, family and fiancé for helping make this possible.

Once he was finished, he took the oversized pair of scissors that Melinda was holding out to him. "Without further ado," he paused and turned at an angle to where he was still facing the audience as he cut the ribbon in front of the door, "we would like to officially welcome everyone to the Turtle Cove branch of United Martial Arts."

The crowd cheered just as Rocky heard his communicator chirp. He glanced up at the crowd, and everyone was making their way to the door. Everyone except the rangers. Jen had slid back to meet up with the others and they were working on disappearing. He frowned. It would be easier if the attack were on Turtle Cove. At least then, everybody would be hiding and he would not have to worry about how to slip off.

Alyssa stepped up and nudged Rocky back as Cole moved in front of the incoming crowd to take the lead. They both heard the noise and knew what it meant. "Come on in everyone. We have refreshments for you all, and our instructors Dean and Alyssa are here to show you guys a bit more about what we're about." Cole said as he gestured for everyone to follow him.

Rocky smiled briefly as everyone started to follow Cole in. He really should pay him for all that he had done for him. He tried to make him and employee, but the former red ranger refused. He said he did not need a job he had plenty to do. This was just him helping a friend.

"Go." Alyssa hissed with a smile still on her face as the rest of her former team approached. "We've got the demo and the sign ups covered. If we need anything I'll put these guys to work." She said quietly as she stuck her thumb in their direction.

Rocky nodded his head and started to slip away, the rest of the Wild Force team filling in the spot where he once stood to make it look as though he was never there. "Emergency?" Max asked as he glanced over toward his teammate.

"You know how it is." Alyssa replied with a smile.

Taylor nodded absentmindedly as she and Eric watched people enter. Although she loved being back in the Air Force, she missed her days as a ranger and was somewhat disappointed that the pink powers did not chose her. Not that she wanted to be pink, but it was still another morpher. She glanced in the direction Rocky took off in, watching as a blue streak flew through the sky.

* * *

"Arius." Kim said as she and most of her team teleported down to the fight, fully morphed. "I was beginning to think you were too chicken to come back down here and fight." It had been a while since he had made an appearance on the surface, he usually sent his minions.

"Well when you pay perfectly good help there's no point in always getting your hands dirty." Arius said as he took a step forward separating himself from his Keresecks and Torssus. Shax and Novax he left behind this time. He did not even bring that many Keresecks, he wanted to make sure all the rangers except Kim were available to call on their zords when the time was right.

Kim smirked as a blue streak flew in and joined the group. "You know if I was you I'd think about cutting their salaries. You're help isn't doing a very good job."

"Which is why I came down to visit you myself." Arius replied. "I think I may be a little more persuasive in getting you to come quietly."

"Dream on." Kim replied as she let out a little laugh. If he thought he was going to come down here with a new monster and scare her into joining him, he was wrong.

"Kaycea, I'll change your mind by the end of the day, you just wait and see." Arius said as with a swift motion of his hand he indicated for Torssus to lead the others in for an attack. His army followed his explicit instructions not to attack Kaycea and to go after the rest of the ranger team. Once they were occupied, Arius grinned at his target. "Why don't you come over here and we'll talk."

"Yes," Kim said as she called for her Fire Saber, "we'll talk." She finished as she ran toward him to attack.

The battle began in earnest, with most of the rangers taking care of Keresecks while Arius kept Kim busy. Torssus practically danced around the battlefield, letting out a laugh that reminded the former Turbo rangers of Callisto, as he planted bombs strategically around the battlefield. His laughter would increase anytime a ranger took a hit. He wanted to blow them to smithereens, but he couldn't just yet. He needed to wait for them to get into their zords.

One of his explosive devices hit an unsuspecting silver ranger. Tommy cursed as he got tossed across the battlefield and into the back of the white ranger. He hit her with enough force that she flew forward, into the lighting strike she was trying to use to hit the Keresecks. Carri took enough of a hit that she flew back a bit further, hitting the ground and rolling until she hit another explosive device that sent her flying once more.

Carri laid there for a moment as she caught the monster looking at her out of the corner of her eye. Despite the numerous rangers that were calling out to her, she decided to play dead. She saw Torssus approaching her. He was generally staying far away from the rangers, just cowardly setting bombs and walking away. She wanted to tell him exactly what she thought of that tactic.

She waited until he was standing over her, trying his best to peer through her helmet and into her eyes. Her fingers grazed her Lightning Lance, still powered up from the fight she was just in with the Keresecks. Before Torssus could register what was happening, she grabbed it and used it to make contact with his chest. "Asshole." She growled as she simply held the lance in place, giving him enough of a shock that he might have some sort of idea what his bombs felt like.

Standing, she held the lance in place. As she removed it and prepared to kick the crap out of him, a spiked metal ball flew forward and smacked him in the face. The Metallic Mace swung at him one more time, knocking him off his feet. "You know, you play dead like that you're going to give your teammates a heart attack." Jason commented, briefly looking toward Carri before turning his attention back to the monster.

Carri snorted as she moved into fighting stance. "I was trying to give him a heart attack."

"I don't think it worked yet." Jason said as Torssus started to pull himself back to his feet.

"That just means I need to keep trying." Carri said as a flash of sunlight blinded their explosion happy friend. Carri used the distraction to strike him with lighting, before she and Jason, along with the newly arrived solar ranger, ran in to attack him.

A few minutes later, the remaining three rangers finished off their Keresecks and moved in to help their other teammates. They were assaulting Torssus with a combination of elemental and physical attacks. And while they were still running into a few stray explosives, he had not had much of a chance to lay down any new ones.

Just as Tommy was about to suggest a finishing move, Torssus started to grow to city wrecking size. "What's this?" he bellowed as he grew. He did not sign up for a suicide mission. They were only supposed do this to him if he lost. Maybe he did not know something. This was those rangers' faults. He was going to take them and their zords out before he perished.

Jen glanced over toward their leader, who was still busy with Arius. Their battle was intense and she was not completely sure what was going on between the two of them. She did know Kim was not free to grab a zord. "Can we form the megazord without her?"

"Billy?" Tommy questioned, hoping he was listening to what was asked.

"Affirmative." Billy replied. "Call for your zords. I will set up Kim's zord so that it will come and combine with yours when you move into megazord formation."

"Got it." Tommy said as he moved toward the front of the team, assuming control in Kim's absence. "We need Planetary Zord power now!" The zords barreled toward them, and the rangers immediately went to jump into their respective zords. "Let's go ahead and bring them together, the less giant bombs we have to deal with the better."

Tommy and the other rangers moved quickly into their megazord formation, but not before a lightning strike hit Torssus out of nowhere. "Carri." Tommy said harshly through the speakers. He did not remember giving the attack first then form the megazord order.

"What?" Carri questioned as her zord was connecting with the others without missing a beat. "I still owe him." She said as she shot up through the zord and toward the megazord cockpit.

"We all owe him." Zhane pointed out. He was sure one of his bombs had thrown around each of them a few times.

"Let's just finish him off and be done with it." Rocky said. His school was opening without him, his fiancé nearly gave him a heart attack… he was well past ready to be done with this one.

"Agreed." Tommy said as he moved in to hit Torssus. As he moved, Torssus threw a bomb that they narrowly avoided. The bomb landed beside their feet, creating a small crater in the park and throwing the megazord off balance.

Swearing was heard throughout as they tried to regain their composure. "Those aren't the same things he was using before." Jen pointed out. Even at normal size, a bomb with that much power would not have left the rangers standing.

He threw another bomb and the megazord jumped and tumbled out of the way. "I have a bad feeling about this." Jason said as they watched another small explosion. He had a feeling this was Arius's way of getting rid of the zords, and possibly the team along with them.

They turned and stood, and as they did they could hear things hitting their zord. Finally, they got a look at one of them as it flew through the air and hit the top of the zord's head, sticking in place. "Explosives?" Zhane questioned as Torssus grabbed a device from his belt. Reacting quickly, Zhane used his Planetary zord to stomp on the ground, the powers of the Green Terra Ranger shaking the ground below Torssus to the point where the Earth started to split, causing him to drop the device.

The shaking stopped and Tommy's zord issued a solar flash. Torssus immediately reached for his eyes. The silver ranger knew they had bought themselves a few seconds at best. "I've got an idea." Jen said, working quickly to put her Planetary powers to good use. Wind emerged from the center of the zord and started circling it. The winds were so powerful that the zord could hardly stand. Fortunately, the zord was not the only thing struggling to hold on, as one by one the explosives popped off.

Jen let them all fall to the ground, and then the megazord took a step back, another gust of wind shooting from its chest and throwing the devices onto Torssus as he was starting to look for the trigger. He grabbed it as the devices attached to him. "How dare you!" He exclaimed as he realized what just happened.

The megazord took a step forward. "You're going to love this." Tommy said as they reached out and smacked the button on the device. Torssus blew up and flung the megazord backwards as he went. The dust cleared and their foe was nowhere to be found.

"Everyone alright?" Tommy asked as he started to survey the damage to the zords. He was greeted by mostly positive replies as all the rangers starting running tests on their individual zords. A few seconds later, the megazord pulled itself to its feet. There were a few minor malfunctions and some cosmetic damage, but it was all reparable.

"I really hated that guy." Carri grumbled, mostly to herself.

"No kidding." Jason chimed in with a sigh.

"Come on, let's go check on Kim." Tommy said. The rangers abandoned the megazord, sending it back to the zord bay as they headed down to the surface.

Arius was fuming when they got there. Torssus was dead, and the rangers and their megazord were still intact. "This isn't over Kaycea."

"No, I suppose it's not." Kim said calmly. It would never be over, not until he was dead and gone. It was going to be a tough road he was powerful. Her battle with him today was simply another piece of evidence that Arius was not a creature to be taken lightly.

Arius glared at her. He knew now what he had to do. He could not simply go in, guns blazing, and destroy the megazord. This was not their original technology. Someone else created it, and he was going to find that someone and make them disclose all the zords weaknesses. Once again, he was going to get punished by Deimos. He would take his punishment, and then he would take care of business.

"Until next time." He said before teleporting off.

Kim sighed. This was definitely a stranger than usual visit. She had not had much chance to figure out what was going on, as she was absorbed in the fight with Arius. She was hoping to destroy him, and to scare off the creature he represented. That had been nothing more than a dream. "Come on guys, let's head back." She said as she led her team to the Command Chamber.

* * *

The rangers teleported back into the Power Chamber, where Billy was waiting with his wife to see the others. Kim looked around at her team. "Alright guys, what did I miss?" she asked, referencing the battle they had while she was busy with Arius.

Rocky stepped forward and spoke up before anyone else could say anything. "I need to get back to my school. Me not being there is going to look suspicious." It was his school, yet he disappeared and essentially left Cole and Alyssa in charge. Granted Alyssa was a part time instructor, but people were still going to start to wonder. "Can I let the others fill you in?"

"Go relieve Wild Force." Kim said with a smile as she shooed him out of there. The ranger emergency was over, and the rest of her team could give the appropriate recap. Besides, it would probably look better if he reappeared before the rest of the team did. Not that anyone had a reason to be suspicious. Other than the fact that they were hanging out with the former Astro rangers, and that one of the Silver Guardians who also happened to be a ranger was there. However there enough public identity rangers now that it was not unusual for civilians to know rangers.

"Wait." Trini said as Rocky went to teleport out. She had come to share her news with everyone. They had agreed that should the rangers be victorious, and the ranger emergency be over, they were going to share their news with the masses. Things were looking as good as to be expected and it was time to tell everyone. "We have something to share."

"What's going on?" Kim asked, looking from one of her oldest friends to the other.

Trini smiled as she stepped forward and slipped her hand into her husbands. "I'm pregnant." She said giddily.

The battle momentarily forgotten, Kim immediately went to give Trini a hug. She knew how much this meant to her, to them. Trini wanted nothing more than to start a family. "Congratulations." She said as Tommy, Jason, Rocky and Carri came up to give the happy couple hugs. Even Jen and Zhane jumped in, and they did not know Billy and Trini all that well. What they did know was how happy that bit of news made them.

Rocky was the first to move away from the group. "I've really got to go, but congrats again." He said as he brought his communicator up. "See you guys later."

The others watched the blue streak disappear before they turned their attention back to the former rangers. "When did this happen?" Jason said with a smile as he reached out and gave Billy a hearty pat on the back.

"When?" Billy repeated as a blush crept into his cheeks. He did not feel comfortable sharing details of his intimate life with his wife.

Trini giggled. "I don't think he means it like that." She said, immediately noticing Billy's discomfort. At least she hoped Jason did not mean it that way. "I'm seven weeks pregnant. We found out two weeks ago, but we didn't want to tell you guys until we made sure everything is alright."

"I take it this means all is well?" Kim asked as she looked at the parents-to-be.

"Given the fact that Trini most likely still carries residual energy from her power coin, all is going as well as can be expected." Billy assured them. They were hoping the pregnancy would be normal and the baby would be happy and healthy, but there is no way to say for sure. At least she got pregnant. With all they had been through, they were not sure it would happen. It would be interesting to see if Carri and Kim got pregnant should they be inclined to try. Between the power coins they held and all the other powers and ranger related things they had been through, he was not sure it was a possibility.

"I'm sure things will be fine." Tommy said. After all, his ex had her baby and she had been exposed to one of the power coins as well.

The buzz of the announcement started to die down, and Kim looked at the remaining rangers. "Shall we get back to work?"

"I think I'm going to go back down to the surface." Jen said. She had been thinking about it for a few minutes. This may be the best way to slip everyone back in. "I'll rejoin Eric and Taylor. You guys can come in later. Nobody is going to think twice about five friends walking in at the same time."

Kim thought for a moment. "You're right." She agreed. She could not help but wonder if Zordon knew that it was going to require this much planning to keep their secret identities a secret when he told them never to reveal who they were.

Jen nodded and teleported out, leaving four Planetary Rangers behind to handle the recap. Kim turned toward them once Jen was gone. "Alright guys, let's go over you're battle, then the rest of us can head down to the surface before anyone realizes we were gone."

* * *

Later that evening, Tommy and Kim found themselves pulling into the parking lot of their apartment complex, arriving home after leaving Turtle Cove. Rocky's grand opening had been a success. While he was gone, Alyssa and Dean had done some demonstrations, and Eric and the Silver Guardians, who were in uniform, had entertained some of the kids. Melinda counted more new signups by the end of the day than Rocky had expected.

They climbed out of the car and headed toward the front door. After a long day, it was finally time to relax alone in their apartment. Their apartment that they hopefully would not be living in much longer. Their house had for the most part passed inspection, and after a tiny haggle with the homeowners over a few minor issues, they signed for it. Right now, they were in the process of renovations. There were some cosmetic issues they were addressing before they moved in. Some rooms were getting new paint and new floors, and they had discussed redoing the kitchen all together. Although the kitchen did not have to get done before they moved in, but it would certainly be easier to go ahead and do it. Then there were a few renovations that they wanted to do to make the house fit their needs to a tee. None of the work would take long, and they were hoping that it would not be any longer than a month before they moved in.

They opened the door and Kim walked in, immediately flopping on the couch. It had been a long day and she wanted to share parts of her morning and her visit with Billy with Tommy. She had not talked much to him about how her day went. The entire ride home was devoted to that day's battle. While they discussed strategy upon strategy and made multiple points, it all came down to the same thing. As best they could figure, Arius was simply distracting her, trying to give his monster the time to blow up the rangers and their zords. With the rangers and the zords out of the way, Arius would have his run of the planet unless Kim willingly came with him. They were already on their toes, but they were going to have to be extra careful now.

She trusted her team; she knew they were aware of what Arius could do. However she still took a minute to take her team aside after the grand opening was over and push the no mistakes point. She couldn't lose them. Arius was trying to kill some of the closest people in the world to her, all to get her to come with him and be evil. It was not just to be evil it was to be Kemora. It was to have the same glowing red orbs that haunted her nightmares. She would do anything to avoid turning in to that.

Tommy sat down beside her and she forced those thoughts aside. "So, how was your day, aside from the battle?" she asked with a smile, figuring she would let him fill her in first.

"My day? Well you know most of it." Tommy replied with a smile as he leaned over and put an arm around his girlfriend. "I did visit Carri this morning." He had been debating whether to tell Kim about his side project. However he seriously doubted that Carri would not mention it, and he would rather she hear it from him.

"Oh?" Kim questioned curiously. It was not that Carri and Tommy were not friends, but it was somewhat random that he was visiting her. "What did you guys do?"

"Talked. About work." Tommy said as Kim brought her knees in and made herself comfortable. "Did you know that her relatively new company managed to land the Luke Kirk book?"

"Really?" Kim said, trying her hardest not to tense up at the mention of Carri and Luke Kirk in the same sentence. Tommy did not know the truth; he was acting way too casual for that. She was going to have to see where this went.

Tommy nodded. He was trying to gauge whether or not her response was authentic. She seemed generally surprised, so he was going to assume for now that she did not know about it. "I guess she wanted to wait to tell everyone. I just happened to stumble across the information while I was researching Luke Kirk."

A noise of acknowledgment slipped through Kim's lips as she snuggled into Tommy's shoulder, trying her best to look uninterested. "I didn't know you are Luke Kirk fan."

"I'm not, not really." Tommy replied. Having an interest and being a fan were different. "Ethan is, and Hayley has read his book as well. They actually got me interested in it." He paused as Kim looked up at him, waiting for him to continue. "They both said it's somewhat familiar, at least the stories. They said if they didn't know any better they would think it was written by a ranger."

"Wow." Was the only response Kim could muster as multiple alarms in her head went off. She went into overdrive trying to keep herself calm. It was more than just normal human physical emotions she had to keep under control; it was her Muirantian powers as well. Fortunately, she had practice keeping everything in check.

"I'm inclined to agree. The way the stories read, and the fact that the unknown Ausus Productions got the contract make you think." He said, watching as Kim sat up a bit and looked at him. "Carri claims she doesn't know Luke Kirk and I can't say one way or the other, but I'm not sure what to think about him. What do you think?" She was a red, she knew a lot about the rangers. Maybe she had an idea as to where to start.

"Hmm." Kim said as she pretended to consider the possibility. "I haven't heard anything about Luke Kirk." She lied. She hated lying to Tommy, she had done enough of it already about her powers, but this was Jason's secret to tell and she was going to leave that to him. "I can't imagine if a ranger was writing it that they'd be able to keep that kind of secret away from the rest of the community."

"I thought about that." Tommy replied. He thought about it before he started researching and even after he confronted Carri. There were many possibilities. Although the way the facts added up it was almost certainly a ranger. He just was not sure if it was a secret benefactor or if Carri was lying. He was not going to take his eye off of her but he knew she'd never tell him the truth.

He glanced over at Kim and an idea came to him. She would never tell him the truth, but there were other rangers that she trusted with all her secrets. "I think we have the right to know if it is a ranger. Maybe you could talk to Carri, see what she knows. I don't think she's being very forthcoming with me."

"Sure, I can talk to her." Kim promised him. Yup, she'd discuss Luke Kirk with her, not a problem. She just was not going to report her findings back to Tommy. They did have a right to know. Presently, on Earth, she was the most senior of the active red rangers. Since she knew, that was good enough for her.

Leaning back down, Kim snuggled back into Tommy's arms. "I had an interesting meeting today too." She said as she prepared to fill her in on what she learned. She hoped that by the time she was done, Tommy will have forgotten about the Luke Kirk issue. She was going to do everything in her power to help her friend keep his secret buried. Whether it was a good idea or not, she wasn't sure. She knew Tommy wasn't going to let it go, and that the situation would explode if it ever came out, but for now she was going to do her best to help keep Luke Kirk's identity a mystery.


	8. Opportunity Knocks

**Disclaimer:** All things Power Rangers belong to Disney, the Nova Rangers belong to KSuzie, everyone else belongs to me.  
**Authors Notes:** Much thanks to KSuzie for the conversation and the ideas that led to part of this story.

Dark Inheritance  
"Opportunity Knocks"

On a beautiful Friday morning, the black Planetary Ranger found himself standing outside, leaning against his car, waiting to steal his girlfriend away for lunch. He wished this was her Friday off, but it had not worked out that way. If it were, he would have spent the rest of the day celebrating his good morning with her.

Things were really starting to come together for him. If someone had asked him in college, where he would be at twenty-nine, he would have not said here. He would have never thought he would have one relatively successful book series with another new series that was a massive success. He never thought he would be gearing up to release a second book in his series, one that had massive amounts of hype surrounding it. Hype that he did not think was possible considering nobody had seen more than an excerpt from it.

He never thought that one of his books would become a movie. A movie that was getting ready to start filming. He had met with Carri that morning and she informed him that everybody had officially signed on the dotted line for his movie. This was the cause for the celebration. There was no more speculation about dates. Things were set in stone now. The movie was going to start filming in June. That was a huge deal for both of them. It will put Carri's small company on the map and it is going to put his story on the big screen, where it will be viewed not only by fans, but also by people who have not even touched the books.

When he was in college, the last place he ever thought he would be was standing out here, waiting for Emily, to take her to lunch. They were in college when she cheated on him, breaking his heart. He never really did get over that. Kim and Carri tried to help him get over her. He thought he did, although he could never really put himself in a serious relationship after that. What made him realize that he never got over her was seeing her in K's world.

Even then, it was not automatic; he did not go home and rush back into her arms. He did not know if he could. Despite how much he wanted to be with her, she still cheated on him. Eventually though he felt like he really could forgive her, and after a conversation with Kim and Carri where they encouraged him to do what would make him happy, he asked her out.

Other than accepting a morpher again, that was the best decision he had made in years. He was glad that he took another chance on her. There was still part of him that worried that something would go wrong, that she would break his heart again, but every day that part grew smaller. He was really enjoying being with her again.

He would not say things between them were perfect, or were as good as they were in college, but they were getting there slowly. With Emily, he had a woman that he could share every aspect of his life. She knew about the rangers, and about Luke Kirk, two things he never shared with other girlfriends. He knew that him running off to be a ranger worried her, but she worked hard to accept that as part of who he was.

They were happy, and it has been a long time since he was happy. That was probably the only reason why Kim and Carri accepted her back in his life again. They spent hours trying to console him after she cheated; they never wanted to see her face again. However, they could not deny the fact that he had rough luck in love lately and that being with Emily again was the first time that they had seen him this well off in a relationship in years. He did not see them going shopping together anytime soon, but the girls, his sisters, who wormed their way into his heart and made their opinions worth more than anybody else's, accepted Emily.

He smiled to himself as a familiar figure emerged from the building. "Emily!" he called out.

His girlfriend turned, startled. "Hey!" She said her face lighting up as she realized who had gotten her attention. She walked briskly toward him, putting her hands around his neck and leaning in to give him a passionate kiss as she approached. "What are you doing here?" she asked, her arms still firmly attached to his neck.

"I was trying to catch you before you left for lunch." Jason replied, leaning in to give her another kiss. "I was hoping you'd let me take you out."

Emily raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. He was in a very good mood. This was rare for him. Something must have happened. "What's going on?" she questioned with a smile.

"Nothing." He replied with a grin.

She looked him up and down. "This isn't nothing." She pointed out. "Something happened to put you in this good of a mood."

He laughed. She knew him too well. "I got some very good news this morning." He replied as he kissed her again. He could not help himself. Thinking about her, about them, made him want to skip lunch and take her home with him. "Which I will be happy to share with you if you accompany me to lunch."

"Hmm." Emily said, her eyes twinkling as she pretended to think it over. "I suppose that's a fair trade."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Jason said as he pulled his keys out of his pocket.

Emily let go of his neck and headed around to the passenger's side. "Remember, I only have an hour."

"I'll have you back in time." Jason said as he climbed into the driver's side. He glanced over at Emily who was climbing into the car as well. "Promise."

She grinned at him as he started the car up. It was a nice surprise to be able to spend her lunch with her boyfriend instead of sitting at the diner down the street, alone, again. She loved the time she got to spend with Jason. Getting to apologize to him, getting him to forgive her and want a second chance had been the highlight of her year last year. Hopefully today they could get through the hour uninterrupted and have a good time.

* * *

It was after lunchtime, although the blue ranger had not had lunch yet. He planned to spend his lunchtime with his fiance, but he was waiting for her to arrive. Between attacks and Carri's workload, he had hardly seen her this week. He was glad that they could finally sit down to have a meal together.

Therefore, while most of the west coast was off having lunch, he was sitting in his office working on his website. With the addition of the new school in Turtle Cove, he wanted to revamp his website and make some serious changes. He was overflowing with ideas, and he wanted to start trying to pull things together.

He had so many ideas on how to gain interest in karate and help future and current students that he could not use them all without going overboard. This was why he decided for a second opinion on what would be best. He wanted opinions from someone familiar with teaching karate. He could have asked his instructors, but there was no guarantee that they would not mask their true opinion to try to kiss his butt.

He knew two people who used to teach karate and would not hesitate to give him an honest opinion. This was why he called his two teammates to see if either of them could come by and help. As it turned out, neither of them was busy and both of them volunteered to come by and give him their opinion. Which is why both of them had just pulled up chairs next to the blue ranger, and all three were now staring at the computer.

"What have you got?" Tommy asked. He had not been working that day, but he still had plenty of stuff to get done. It had taken nearly three weeks to get the renovations done on the house, and now they were ready to move in. Part of what he had to do involved meeting up with Hayley in Reefside to get the remainder of his things, including his furniture. Since she would not be free until a little after seven, he still had a bit of time which he figured he might as well use to help a fellow ranger.

Rocky clicked on his explorer icon. He went to the address bar and typed in the address for his website. "This is what we've got." He said as the site came up.

"You haven't changed anything, right?" Jason questioned as he looked over the home page. He dropped Emily off after lunch and figured why not stop by Rocky's school. He had some minor work to do involving his new book, which should be on the shelves by the end of May. Other than that, he had nothing else to do but work on ideas for his next book. Those he did not have to lock himself up in front of his laptop to work on.

"Not yet." Rocky replied. He was not going to start changing things until he was sure of what he was changing. He went and opened up another window and looked through his favorites. He had seen some things on other websites he was thinking about modifying and trying out. "Some ideas I've written down, some I've borrowed." He said as he clicked on a link. He wanted to compare something on another site with what he had now to start the website conversation.

As he clicked on the link, the internet froze. It would not allow him to do anything as a pop up took the computer over front and center. The advertisement started playing and the boys leaned in closer. As the website became apparent, Jason snickered. "Do I need to tell Carri what you've been up to during the day?"

"What?" Rocky questioned, trying to exit out of it unsuccessfully. Spandex sex dot com was not a website he had even heard of before. "Trust me this is not my thing."

The pop up featured four video clips of people using spandex in ways the boys had never thought of. It wanted them to click on the clip they were most interested in and pay the price, and then they would have access to that and other full videos. After a minute or two, the initial set of clips disappeared. Rocky was still trying to exit out of the pop up but with no luck.

A second set of clips appeared with the title "We feature role-play". As they realized what spandex related role-play meant, the door opened and the white ranger walked in. "Hey boys." She greeted. She was earlier than she thought she would be, but she figured she would drop by and hang out until he was ready.

"Uh… Carri… you're early." Rocky stammered, continuing to unsuccessfully hit the red x in the corner. Not that she would think much of the pop up, but he still did not want her to catch him looking at porn clips.

"Yeah. We finished up faster and decided to take an early break." She said, as she looked the three of them over. They looked like they were up to something. When Jason gave her a slight grin, she knew exactly what it was.

She walked over toward them and scooted in behind them, leaning on the back of Rocky's chair. "Boys…" she said as she glanced at the monitor.

"We didn't seek this out, I promise." Rocky assured her as he gave her a halfway goofy, halfway apologetic grin.

She snorted as she glanced over the clips. It was power ranger role-play. One of the clips featured the pink Mystic Force Ranger. Next to that was the blue Lightspeed Rescue Ranger. Below that was a clip featuring two rangers, the red and yellow Turbo Rangers. "I totally wore the spandex better than that." Carri commented before turning to the next clip. Knowing who was really behind the mask, she had no inclination to watch the yellow and red rangers.

"Maybe we should put out a memo so they could at least get it right. Yellow with blue, red with pink." Jason commented as he glanced up at Carri and smiled.

"Yeah and green with himself." Carri could not help but add in. Jason smacked her arm and she snickered as she glanced at the last box. "Pink Zeo. I wonder if it's Kat or Kim."

Tommy focused in on the pink Zeo Ranger for a moment. There were differences between Kim and Kat in the pink spandex. Differences that even the media noticed, as they were quick to point them out when Kim left, differences that he certainly noticed since he dated both of them. His preference in pink was Kim. From the build of the girl in the video, this person preferred Kat's version of the pink ranger.

The pink ranger's helmet came off and the long blonde hair fell down her back. They could not see much as the camera was positioned behind her. Although the woman in the video shook out her hair, and that was enough of a side glance of her face for those who knew what was going on to figure out who it was. She started to unzip her uniform and as it fell to the floor revealing the nude backside of the woman in question, the camera cut off and "pay now for full video and sound" flashed across the screen.

"Oh… my… God." Carri said her jaw dropping.

Tommy sat straight up. He had not thought anything about looking at her. He thought it was just a funny website. He could see some amusement in watching the red and yellow Turbo rangers. Kim would even see some amusement in that. This, however, was not amusing. He had been concentrating on this girl in pink spandex.

"So…" Jason said, suddenly glad he had come. This trip could actually be work related. He may get some good drama from this outcome. "I didn't know Kat was into sex tapes." He joked.

"She's not." Carri snapped, immediately turning toward the black ranger. Jason through his hands up and she grunted, turning back to the screen. The advertisement had finally stopped playing and Rocky could exit out of it. "Chris must have done this behind her back."

"Are you sure?" Rocky questioned. Kat and Carri had been at odds lately. True, this was not something Kat would do, but perhaps there was a side of her cousin Carri did not know.

"She's right." Tommy chimed in. If anybody here knew this side of Kat, it was him. "I doubt it was Kat's idea to role play ranger, and she certainly wouldn't be up for videotaping it." Kat was always shy when it came to sex and all related subjects. She was always embarrassed when she walked in on Carri and Rocky, and she never saw them do anything more than making out. They never did anything more than serious making out. They were only together a few months, and Kat was never into sex. He would have been willing, after all, he started having sex with Kim the summer before their junior year in high school, but Kat would never let him go that far and he would never have pushed her. If he even brought up sex, it made her blush. This was definitely not a Kat thing to do.

Carri leaned down and kissed Rocky on the top of the head. "You boys play with the website. I was here early anyway." She said as she walked off and headed toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Rocky called after her. Although he was fairly certain he knew.

"I'm going to talk to Kat." Carri replied simply as she turned around and smiled sweetly. "Then I'm going to kill her husband."

"Carri." Rocky said, making a frustrated sound as he stood. "What exactly are you going to tell her?"

"I was thinking something like 'your husband is a douche and I'd be happy to kill him for you'. I think that covers it." She replied with a grin. Rocky rolled his eyes and she continued. "Look I'm going to tell her what I saw. Don't worry; I'm not going to tell her that we were all sitting here staring at it like a bunch of idiots."

Rocky sighed and sat back down. "Fine. I'll see you for lunch?"

"I'll be back. Promise." She said as she turned back toward the door.

"Just don't leave any evidence." Jason called out as she opened the door. He really did not like Chris and he was rooting her on, but he did not want to bail her out of jail.

"I'm not stupid." Carri said. Not that she was really going to kill him, but she was going to make sure he knew he had gone way to far this time.

"No using your powers either." Tommy quickly pointed out as she shut the door to the office. He hoped she heard that and was not going to be that stupid.

Carri snorted. "There goes striking him with lightning." She said to herself as she headed toward the front door. This has been a long time coming, she was certain she could take care of Chris without her ranger powers. Smiling, she headed out of the school and went to climb into her car.

* * *

Elemi walked into a building that was secluded on a remote corner of a planet near his home world. The building housed some of the most brilliant minds of the last century. They were scientists, contracted by the Rheigan government, and relocated here to keep them safe and keep their work protected. Their work was important. It was not just work done for Rheiga; it was work they did for the Novas. They were responsible for much of the technology the Nova's used.

Originally, they were situated at the Nova's home base, but then they decided that the scientists were too important to both the Nova's and Rheiga to have them that close in the event of an attack. They moved here, which was better for them. This was one of the best set ups the galaxy had to offer. They spent the day working with like minds, and at night they lived in homes in the small community they built, which was one of the most advanced in the galaxy. In addition, they had shuttles here, the trip back to their home world was a mere half a day, if that, and they could return when necessary.

They were usually left alone, however today Elemi was asked to stop by on a diplomatic mission. He was not only a son of the emperor of Rheiga 4; he was the red ranger from the Novas, which made him a key person to send to see the scientists. For this particular assignment, he chose to bring two of his rangers with him, Garan and Jaxan. They took a small shuttle from Rheiga 4, while the four remaining members of his crew took the ship to resupply some items and take a rare moment of down time to do some routine maintenance while the ship is docked.

It was a good time for a small break. Jakar, the enemy they had been chasing for so long, had disappeared for the last few weeks. His trail had gone cold, and there was no time better than now to stop. He wanted their team to take this break and refocus so they could go back out there looking for him. He hoped that they would be out of here within the hour and that they would be ready to get back to their other duties.

Elemi left those thoughts as he walked into the main room, his two teammates at his side, and greeted the lead scientist. "It's good to see you again." He said.

"You as well." Caden replied, with a slight bow in the red ranger's direction. He had been in charge here since Elemi was selected as the red ranger. The two had many meetings together in the past.

"Now" Elemi started to get right down to business, but got interrupted when another scientist came running into the room.

"There's a transmission coming in." He said, interrupting the dealings involving the Nova Rangers.

The three rangers exchanged glances. For them to be interrupted, this must be important. They followed Caden as he headed off to answer it. "What's going on?" he asked as he walked into their communications room.

"Are you in charge?" the man waiting for him to arrive questioned.

Elemi's facial features hardened as he immediately recognized the caller. He stayed back for a moment so he could figure out where this was going.

"I am." Caden replied cautiously. He had never seen this man before, he had no idea how he found them here or what he wanted.

"Good." He replied with a smile. "Then I propose that you send out a few of your best minds to come with me and I will leave you in peace."

"That will not happen." Elemi responded, stepping forward and taking control of the situation.

"The red Nova Ranger." He said with disgust. These were their scientists; however, he had not expected any of the rangers to be here. He thought they were keeping good and busy in other parts of the galaxy.

"Arius." He replied. Whatever this was, it could not be good. "I thought you were busy losing to the Planetary Rangers. What brings you all the way out here?"

"You're right; I have been tied up with all those setbacks." Arius replied with a sigh. The latest one landed him yet another punishment, more severe than the last. He could not keep losing like this. He was lucky that Deimos understood that no one else in the galaxy had the power to attempt to take on Kaycea. Of course, that was only going to get him so far.

"What will fix my troubles is getting the rangers zords out of the picture. Since your friends invented them, they are going to tell me all of their weaknesses." He had been running around the galaxy trying to figure out who knew anything about these zords. It took him nearly two weeks, but eventually he tracked the technology back to the Novas. It was days later before he figured out where they hid their scientists.

Now he was ready to get his answers and get back so that he could destroy the zords and pressure Kaycea into returning with him. It was his best shot at winning. He certainly was not going to win if things continued as they were. He had sent a few small attacks in motion while he was gone, and those were all complete failures as well. It was painfully obvious that no attack was going to work as long as they had those zords on their side. Once he had their scientists, he could figure out how to disable their zords, and perhaps he could even figure out how to counteract their weaponry or their powers. He would be unstoppable.

"That will not happen." Elemi said as his two teammates came up and stood at his side. They could not let them get their scientists. If they talked, if they spilled their secrets, not only would it mean trouble for Kim and her rangers, but also Arius could figure out how to compromise the Novas and any other teams that borrowed from their technology.

"Oh but I think it will." Arius replied. The Nova's ship was nowhere in sight. There were only three rangers standing in front of him. These three rangers were not going to be able to stop him. Since they were not going to come out, he was just going to have to go in and take them. "I'll give you fifteen minutes to send some of your best out. Otherwise I'll bring my entire army in and we'll destroy everything and take who we want." He didn't just have his army. Demos had let him take control of every Kereseck their army possessed to make sure no one stood in their way. Having these scientists on their side meant more than just stopping the Planetary team.

With that, the transmission ended. Garan and Jaxan turned so that they could speak with their leader. "Should we alert the others?" Garan questioned.

"Yes. Let the rest of the team know what's going on." Elemi replied. However, they would not get the ship here fast enough, not if Arius was attacking in fifteen minutes. They were not going to be able to fend off his entire army alone. There was only one ranger who had the power to get here fast enough. If they had a chance at coming out of this victorious, he was going have to go to her for help.

* * *

It was later than it should have been when Kim slipped back into her office. She sighed as she slid into her chair, hoping nobody noticed her absence. Sandy had driven her crazy that morning, and when lunch came up, she knew she needed to take off for a while. Of course, she had not intended on the hour and a half lunch break, but she had lost track of time. If Ashley wanted to punish her, she would deserve it.

It started with her attending one of her sessions with Mystic Mother. She was learning so much from her these days and she loved her time in the Mystic Realm. Basic sorcery she had a good grip on. She had been working on the more advanced techniques lately and she was really enjoying it.

She had been working with Mystic Mother for a long time now, and it was finally starting not to be odd taking direction from the former evil doer. She was glad that they had encountered each other. Mystic Mother truly understood what she was going through. She knew all about the fight against what was in your DNA, about learning to control magic and powers that evil DNA gave you and use them for good.

Mystic Mother still had many of her old personality traits though, and despite the fact that they were becoming closer, it was still hard at times to work with her. Of course, Kim had it easy in comparison to her daughter. The few times she was there while the two of them were trying to work on something, she thought Mystic Mother would rip her head off.

For now, they chalked it up to teenage angst, something that Rhianna was starting to experience. They got into an argument today because Rhianna wanted to skip the rest of her training to go to a party with Skull. Mystic Mother put her foot down then Rhianna stayed and half-assed things for a while until her mother let her go. Kim lectured Mystic Mother again. Rhianna was sneaking off and rebelling for Skull, and Kim knows it is getting serious. Her teacher simply cannot say no to the daughter she just got back.

All Kim's valid points got her was tossed out of the Mystic Realm for the day. Mystic Mother complained of the huge headache that Rhianna and Kim had given her and said that the session was over because she had to lie down. Kim was reluctant to go back to work, which is why she left the Mystic Realm and headed toward Ninjor's temple to work with him for a bit.

She smiled and reached into her pocket as she thought about her time with Ninjor. She looked down at the gold coin in her hand. He was senile as hell, but he was a damn good coin master. Unfortunately, she was nowhere near there yet.

This particular coin was another failure, but Ninjor wanted her to take it with her as a positive reminder of how far she has come. She was having trouble balancing everything that was needed in order to create a good coin. The few coins she created that she thought were good; she could not get to connect properly with the grid so they were useless.

She knew she would figure it out eventually. This time she somehow managed to put too much raw power and energy into the coin. She could force it into the grid but there was a good chance it would be a disaster. She could cause a backlash and damage the grid. Depending on how big the backlash, she could interrupt enough of the grid that the current teams would be unable to morph. She was busy enough fixing the ancient grid that Cratus damaged, she did not need to add other grids to her to-do list.

Even if there was no backlash and the coin connected successfully, there was a good chance that whoever tried to morph would not be able to handle the power in the coin. Not handle meant that they would probably die in a small explosion. So even though she made a coin, as far as ranger purposes were concerned it was useless. It was nothing more than a reminder of who she was becoming and how far she still had to go.

Kim sighed as she traced the shape on the coin. It was a rhino, and if it worked, it would have made an orange rhinoceros ranger. She could make any color animal combination she could dream of. At least she could try to. It was fun; she had come up with some insane ideas. Most of them Ninjor balked at and convinced her not to attempt, but this one he liked. She smiled to herself, somewhat content, when someone snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Kimberly." Sandy spoke harshly. She watched as the young woman looked up startled, shoving something into her pocket. "You were supposed to be back a half hour ago. You cannot just do what you please around here. You have work that needs to get done."

"I'm really sorry." Kim apologized as she sat straight up at her desk. "There was traffic; I didn't think it was going to take that long to get back." That was not a total lie. It did take her longer to get back than she expected. Mainly because she was gone longer than expected and did not quite cut her return as close as she originally hoped.

"It's always sorry with you." Sandy commented with a snarl. The worst part was Ashley did not mind. At the end of last year, she gave her a raise. The girl took off when she wanted and she got a raise. This kind of stuff would not fly with any other employee. The good news is, afterward the disappearances stopped. However, ever since Kim's birthday they have started back up again. If Ashley struck a deal with her, a raise for her undivided attention, she may want to think again.

Kim did not know what to say in reply. Fortunately, she did not have to think of a response as her communicator went off. Knowing she could not simply run off again, she doubled over in her chair and grabbed her stomach. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Sandy rolled her eyes. "You were out drinking weren't you?" she said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "This is not acceptable. I am reporting this incident to Ashley. You may think you can get away with long breaks, but drinking on the job crosses the line."

With that, Sandy turned on her heels and stormed away. Kim stood up as soon as she was gone. "Shit." She cursed to herself as she continued to make herself look like she was sick by making a beeline for the bathroom. She thought Sandy would think food poisoning, not drunk. She should have known better, Sandy never gave her the benefit of the doubt.

She jumped into the bathroom and slammed the door behind herself, locking it as she did. Pulling her communicator to her mouth, she spoke. "Go ahead."

"You've got an emergency transmission coming in from the Nova's. You need to get up here now." Billy replied.

"On my way." Kim said. She sighed as she double-checked to make sure the door was locked before teleporting away in a flash of red light.

* * *

Carri walked quickly into the dance studio where her cousin taught. It was a bit early for afternoon classes to start, which was good. What Carri needed to say is not meant for young ears. She headed straight back to the small office the instructors shared and banged on the door.

The door flung open and a surprised former ranger smiled at her. "Carri, hey, what are you doing here?" she asked as she leaned over to give her cousin a hug. It was really nice to see her there.

"I was hoping we could talk." She said as she glanced at the girl standing behind Kat. That was the only reason she avoided starting the conversation with "your husband's a douche, just give me the word and I'll take care of him". She wished she could just go straight to Chris and take him out, avoiding this conversation all together, but Kat needed to know what was going on first. Kat loved him and like it or not, he was still family.

"Absolutely." Kat replied. They did not get to talk as much as they used to. It made her wonder what prompted the visit. She really hoped it was simply to continue making amends. She turned around to face her coworker. "Patti can you give us a minute?"

"Sure thing." Patti said as she looked the other woman over. She had heard a lot about Carri, at least she assumed this was the same Carri that she had been at odds with for years. She would love to stick around and see what this was about, but the look she got from Carri when she passed suggested she had better keep moving.

"Come in." Kat said as she took Carri by the hand and pulled her into the office. "Have a seat." Kat glanced around to make sure there was room for both women to sit comfortably. The office was tiny, and because it was so small, it tended to get cluttered. Carri managed to slip into the open seat and Kat tossed papers out of the other chair, scooting next to her cousin before sitting down as well. "How are you?"

"Good." She said with a forced smile. She was planning to skip the pleasantries. Now was not the time for Kat to go on for hours about Denise, or how wonderful Chris was. She had bad news and there was no other way to do it than to spit it out. "So… question for you. Have you ever heard of spandex sex dot com?"

"No." Kat said sharply. It was not like her cousin to come discussing some freaky sex related website with her. She did not really discuss sex period, this was definitely out of her comfort zone.

Carri nodded. That was the expected response. She doubted Kat ever looked at a porn site in her life. "It's basically what you think it is, people finding ways to make spandex sexy and shooting porn at home and uploading it so that the world can watch for a fee. From the previews, there is a variety of what you can do with spandex, but apparently, there is a lot of ranger role-play. You ever try that?"

Kat's cheeks immediately turned bright red. She never really did much exciting in the bedroom. However, for Chris's birthday, the year before she got pregnant with Denise, she wanted to do something special for him. He had asked her if she would be willing to role-play in the bedroom and she said yes. He had a fixation with the Zeo team ever since that team rescued him from a monster in college. He watched them on the news all the time afterward and admitted fantasizing about the pink ranger, and about her being the pink ranger. She thought it was cute at the time. She should have known he was going to ask her to wear a cheap spandex replica of Zeo one, but she found herself surprised. Still, she sucked it up for him and did it one time only.

"I…" Kat stuttered, trying to come up with a response while wondering how Carri knew, "well… yes… only once though."

Carri thought about asking her what in the world made her want to go down that road. She was not one for bedroom role-play, but she supposed she would give it a shot if it were something Rocky really, really wanted. However, there was one place that she firmly drew the line, and that was at power ranger. She took her job as a ranger seriously; she wore the suit to take on the bad guys and save the world. She could not imagine any ranger, past or present, volunteering to wear a knock off uniform in the bedroom.

Ignoring those questions, she continued toward her point. "What about using a camcorder in the bedroom?"

"Oh God no!" Kat exclaimed, somewhat bothered that Carri would even ask that question. She would never let a video camera into her bedroom while they were having sex. The thought that footage of her could leak made her sick. Why was Carri asking all these questions? She could not think of a good reason. Unless… maybe Carri and Rocky were playing ranger on the bedroom and a sex tape ended up on the internet.

"See… here's the thing." Carri stated, thinking for a moment how to put this delicately. There was not really a good way of saying it, so she took a deep breath and just went for it. "I know you're not into that sort of thing, but your husband is. There's a sex tape of you as the pink Zeo on spandex sex dot com."

"No." Kat said her face paling. That could not be right. Chris couldn't have… he wouldn't have.

"Sorry Kat but I saw you on the website. It was a porn pop up." Carri paused as Kat glanced at her uneasily. "I wouldn't make this sort of thing up."

Kat's head fell down as her hands came up to her face. She sat there with her head buried for a moment. She could not believe that Chris did that. It was his birthday; maybe he thought it would be ok to tape it for himself. She wished he had asked permission, to which she would have said no, but there is nothing that can be done about that now. The bigger question is why did it end up on the internet? There had to be a reasonable explanation. She could not help but moan. She was a children's dance teacher, now she had a sex tape on the internet. The minute she got home, she was going to have to make her husband take it down.

The former pink ranger sat up and took a few deep breaths. Carri reached over and put a hand on her knee. "You and I both know this was crossing a line. I would be happy to go… talk… to your husband about this so you don't have to see him."

"No." Kat said, forcing herself to smile. If Carri went to see him, the only talking would be Chris begging her not to kill him. Kat would never give her the green light to go get into a fight with her husband. "It's ok."

"It's ok!" Carri exclaimed, yanking her hand back. Like hell, it was ok. He was a douche and now she had solid proof. Kat had to be rational here. "What do you mean its ok?"

"I mean he's my husband and the father of my child. It's ok." Kat repeated. She did not expect Carri to understand. They were a family, she knew he had faults and she still loved him.

"Bullshit." Carri said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You're a prude. This is not ok with you and we both know it."

"I am not a prude." Kat protested. Just because sex was not her favorite topic did not mean she was a prude.

"Please." Carri said as she rolled her eyes. Kat had always been that way. This was the type of girl who would never be with a man who did these kinds of things. That had been evident to Carri since they were younger. She glared at Kat and continued to make her point. "Why do you think I waited to tell you I had sex with Rocky in high school?"

Kat's eyes grew wide. She knew she and Rocky fooled around in high school, but Carri never said anything about having sex. She always thought it was when Carri got the apartment in college before the duo started sleeping together. "You had sex with Rocky in high school?" she repeated, angry that her cousin had never confided in her before. They were best friends back then, she thought she would have come to her with something like that.

Carri flashed her apologetic smile. She honestly thought she had gone back and mentioned that fact to Kat before. She always intended to tell Kat, just not while she was in high school. Kat got squeamish when Carri mentioned making out with boys. In New York, she thought it was because she did not like David. But when she continued to act that way when she talked about Rocky she knew she just did not like to talk about that kind of behavior. She certainly would not have approved of the two of them going all the way. The only person she ever talked to about it with was Jason, and she didn't tell him everything. It was more girl talk, and until Kim came along, she didn't really have a girl to talk with about it.

The problem with Kat was not that she simply would not approve. It was that she worried that Kat would tell her parents. Her aunt and uncle would most likely kick the eighteen-year-old Carri out for having sex under their roof. Then they would tell her parents, who would tell her to either return home or get cut off. Carri would have had to find a place to crash for the rest of her senior year. None of the rangers' parents would let her stay, not after talking to Kat's parents. The only person whose mom would probably let her stay would have been Matt. He had gotten into trouble in high school, as he was into sex, alcohol, and a whole range of other non-high school behaviors. The only reason he got into USC was a soccer scholarship. His mother knew it and still loved him, and since she always liked Carri when they were kids and never liked her mother, she figured she would let her stay even with her teenaged sexual behavior.

If fears about her living situation were not bad enough, she also worried about destroying the team. She figured Rocky, Jason and Adam would side with her, while Tommy, who even before they started dating was somewhat smitten with Kat, would probably side with the pink ranger. Not to mention that it would have destroyed hers and Kat's relationship, before the natural course of things did it anyway. Anytime she thought about telling Kat, her mind went straight to this reality, which is why she chose never to say a word.

Of course now was not the time to get into that part of the discussion with Kat. "That's not what matters now anyway." She said dismissing Kat's anger before her cousin had a chance to express it. "What matters is that you and I both know you aren't ok with this sort of thing. He made a sex tape without your permission. And it's on the internet for everyone - our family, your students, your friends – to see. You can't tell me you are still in love with him, that's crazy."

"I have to still love him Carri, he's my husband. I do disapprove of what has happened here, but I have to forgive him." Kat stopped and Carri snorted. The former pink ranger sighed. It was obvious that Carri knew nothing about marriage, which was sad considering she was about to get married. "You have a lot to learn about marriage. It's obvious that you don't understand the depth of commitment that is involved when you get married to someone."

"Commitment?" Carri questioned her eyes wide. "Are you serious?"

"Yes commitment." Kat said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "And since you don't get what I'm saying, you and Rocky obviously don't have the same level of commitment that Chris and I do."

For a moment, Carri was speechless. If this was Kat's idea of commitment, she was pretty screwed up. Finally, Carri gave Kat a sticky sweet smile before she spoke. "You're right. If this is commitment, then we're not as committed as you and Chris are." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Rocky is certainly not as committed as Chris is. In fact, if Rocky was as committed, I would have left his sorry ass in the middle of the Lunar Palace years ago." She snapped.

"Oh please." Kat said as Carri stood. "You're just jealous that you don't have what we have."

Carri snorted. "Yes. This is me. Jealous. You nailed it on the head." She said with as much sarcasm as she could manage. "You can't sit here all delusional and defend his actions just because you're married. I get that you love him but" She stopped midsentence when her communicator went off. "What?" she questioned sharply.

Kim did not quite know how to respond. She had no idea what Carri had gotten in the middle of, but she was certain they would get an earful when there was not a crisis. "Elemi contacted us. You need to get up here now."

"On it." Carri replied. "Maybe I can go kick something." She mumbled, turning back toward Kat. She debated what to say, if she was going to say anything at all. Finally she spoke. "Duty calls." She said. She caught Kat sigh and lean back as she teleported herself away in a flash of white light.

* * *

Kim watched as the last of the teleportation streaks flew through the air. Once everyone was there, she spoke quickly. "I just got done talking to Elemi. He needs our help."

"With what?" Tommy questioned the irritation in his voice obvious. He did not like the red Nova Ranger, he did not like the way he looked at Kim or the obvious feelings he had for her. He did not like that anytime they were in a bind; the first person he turned to was his girlfriend. She swore that there had never been anything between the two of them and he believed her, but that did not mean he wanted the red ranger hanging around.

Kim shot him a look. She understood where he was coming from, but he drove her crazy. Elemi may show affections toward her, but he was also a professional ranger. He never asked for help or contacted her on a whim. If he contacted her, it was because he had something important to share or because something was seriously wrong. Today, something was seriously wrong.

"Elemi went to see his scientists. He was there on a diplomatic mission when they were contacted by Arius." Kim said as she turned her attention toward the rest of her team. "They've got minutes before Arius throws his army at them. The only way he'll back down is if they hand over their scientists so that they can tell him our zords weaknesses."

"They're not going to give in are they?" Jen asked as she glanced toward her teacher. Destroying the zords would make them vulnerable, and it may very well be what allows Arius to win.

"No, Elemi is going to fight." Kim assured her. "The problem is he only has two rangers with him, the rest are on their way but won't get there in time."

"If you're asking if we're willing to go fight, I think you know the answer to that." Jason quickly pointed out. They would be stupid to say no.

"I know." Kim said a she smiled at him. She had no doubts her team would fight. It was not going to be that easy though. "The problem is the planet is outside our long range capabilities. Billy is working on diverting all power to the long range teleportation systems but it is going to take some time." She wished they did not have to do that, but this was important. However if there was an attack before the Planetary team returned, the Command Chamber would be defenseless.

"I'm going to go ahead. Elemi is going to need all the help he can get. I can take two of you safely with me, the rest of you are going to have to wait for Billy." She wished she could take more, but she had not really tested her powers in that way. She knew it was possible, but now was not a good time to try and fail.

"So then who are you taking?" Rocky questioned. He wanted to go; he did not want to get left behind, even if it was not going to be long. However, he knew that there were others on this team higher on the list than he was.

Kim had thought long and hard about the answer to this question. In the end, it came down to taking the two people who worked best with the Nova Rangers, and who had spent months proving they didn't have a problem taking a command from Elemi if the situation called for it. "Zhane and Carri." She answered quickly. Tommy started to protest and she continued. "It's purely strategy. The three of us worked together with the Nova's for months battling Callisto and Rhianna. I know you all have worked with them before, but I think this is going to be the best option." Besides, she could not afford to have Tommy and Elemi butting heads. They have worked together before, but with only six rangers, it was going to be important to function as a team. Since this was Elemi's turf, he had more authority, and she doubted Tommy would be able to take commands for long.

Rocky was no more pleased about watching this particular trio take off than Tommy was, but he kept his mouth shut as the green and white rangers went to join their leader. Seconds later, they were all engulfed in red light and they disappeared.

Tommy looked toward the remainder of his team. "Let's go find Billy, see if he needs any help." He said with a frown. He was more than a little irritated that Kim left him there. He was a higher-ranking ranger than the two rangers she took with her. He tried to ignore that thought as he continued. "I don't think I need to tell you how important it is that we get out there. If Arius gets his way, the battle will shift in his favor." With that, Tommy took off to find Billy, the other four rangers following behind him.

* * *

A red light materialized in front of the red Nova Ranger. He was relieved to see the figure standing in the center of it. "Kim, thank you for coming so quickly." He said as he walked over and took her hand in his. He glanced briefly at the two rangers flanking her sides. "Carri, Zhane, it's good to see you again. I wish it were under better circumstances." He was thrilled that she did not chose to bring her boyfriend. He knew of Tommy's reputation, but that did not make him any more of a fan of Earth's supposed greatest ranger.

"Of course." Kim replied as she gently pulled her hand away from his. "How long do we have?"

"Minutes, at best." Elemi replied with a frown. If Arius honored his initial time frame, they were looking at less than five minutes to go.

"What have you got so far?" Kim asked. She was hoping that the red ranger had some sort of plan to keep these scientists safe.

"They have no teleportation capabilities in this building. It was created that way to keep anyone on the inside from teleporting information out to the wrong hands." Elemi explained. It was a good idea at the time. They never thought that someone would find them here and attack them. "The facility is secure; there is only one way in or out." They used several security devices at the one exit. That was another way to keep their secrets safe.

"That's good. That means we know exactly where they are going to try to come in." Carri said as Elemi glanced back at her. He never understood her. For someone who was not a red ranger, especially considering she was a female, she spoke up a lot. However, she had proven herself as a ranger so he quit trying to interfere in whatever unorthodox dynamic this team had established.

"So then that's our plan." Kim said with a frown. It was not a good plan but it was going to have to do. Elemi raised an eyebrow and she continued. "We guard the entrance. Fight anything not in spandex that comes near it."

Elemi nodded. It was a good of plan as any they could create. Before he could say so, Garan interrupted. "You need to see the security monitors."

All the rangers turned their attention toward the green Nova Ranger. He motioned toward what he saw and all the rangers took in what was unfolding. "Crap." Carri stated as dozens upon dozens of Keresecks teleported down, with Shax and Novak taking the lead.

"Let's get out there." Kim said as she turned and gestured for Elemi to join her. The two red rangers took the lead with their teammates following behind them. They rushed to the door, morphing as they went. It took a few moments for them to get through all the security measures that had been set up.

As they exited the outer doors and looked around, they realized this was going to be a much more difficult task than they anticipated. "Attack at will?" Zhane questioned.

"Keep them away from the doors by any means possible." Elemi replied. He watched as several bolts of lightning crashed through the sky. The ground started rumbling beneath the advancing enemy. With the army distracted, the six rangers split up and began their attack.

Protecting the door was easier said than done. The mismatched ranger teams created a perimeter around the door, but were each quickly covered in Keresecks. Shax and Novak had yet to attack. They were both standing back, biding their time, waiting for a good moment to move in. Their instructions were clear. Let the Keresecks worry about fighting the rangers. Once the rangers were overwhelmed, which they soon would be, they would be able to sneak through easily and break inside the facility.

It took nearly ten minutes of standing and watching as the rangers fought as hard as they could. Finally, they were all covered to the point where they could not do anything to stand in their way. Shax and Novak walked through the army of Keresecks, easily pushing past the rangers and heading for the door. As they approached the door, it slid open. Their first instinct was that this was going to be easier than they thought.

They were quickly proven wrong when four rangers blasted them out of nowhere. Shax and Novak fell back into the crowd, standing up before gesturing toward the remaining Keresecks to move in.

The four Planetary rangers immediately moved to help out the others. "I can't believe you were trying to leave us out of the fun." Jason said as he tossed the remaining Keresecks off of Kim.

"Believe me; I'm much happier with you here than with you back on Earth." Kim replied as she used her sword to strike one of the Keresecks in the back of the neck, disabling it. She had no idea where all of these Keresecks came from. She was not aware that Arius had this many with him. If he had, she would have thought he would have sent them down to Earth by now.

He may have been sensible about it, realized that there were too many rangers on Earth. This many Keresecks on Earth would make for a long fight, but in the end, the rangers could win. He was better off using Shax, Novak and whatever other creatures he could find to work for them. Here though, there were not enough rangers to take on this numerous of an army. To say they were outnumbered would be an understatement. They had enough Keresecks to send more in and overwhelm them all over again, allowing Shax and Novak a clear passage.

This was not a solution. They could try to use their weapons but there were simply too many of them. Cannon shots would work, but she was not sure if they could keep those up at a rate that would win them the battle. They needed something more explosive than that, something that could take them all out, or enough of them to turn the tables to their side.

Kim thought for a moment. An idea came to her. She contemplated it while she continued to fight. Could that work? There was certainly the capability there for a small explosion. She was not sure she could harness that energy, direct it toward doing what she wanted. It did not hurt to look into it, especially since they were running low on options. She turned toward the black ranger. "I have an idea. Give me a few minutes." She said.

Jason nodded, watching as she teleported herself off. Whatever it was, he hoped to hell it was good enough to take care of their problem. He went back to the fight, fingers crossed that she would return soon. He hoped it was with a plan. If they did not come up with something soon, they were going to give Shax and Novak another opportunity to slip past their perimeter and into the building.

The nine rangers on the battlefield got forced back toward the door. The Keresecks kept coming toward them relentlessly. They were trying not to let them take them over again, they all worried that if they did they would be able to win this battle and kidnap the scientists. The rangers were using their elemental powers, and while they were taking out some of the Keresecks, overall they were hardly making a dent.

They were starting to become covered again. They knew if the tides did not turn quickly, they were in trouble. They knew that if the Keresecks pinned them down, they were giving the scientists away. They knew that meant they were in danger of losing their zords, of losing to Arius. They knew that risked Kim becoming Kemora and destroying everything.

What they did not know was that Kim was returning with a solution. None of them saw her red streak as it teleported back down to the planet's surface. Kim had only been gone a few minutes of battle time, but for her it had been several hours. She had gone to talk to Ninjor, who gave her some ideas, before discussing things with Mystic Mother, who showed her how to follow the ideas through.

This was something that had never been done before, and neither was sure it was going to work out quite like she wanted it to. Both thought given the situation it was worth the effort, and between the coin master and the sorceress she got everything she needed to give it a shot. This was a combination of advanced techniques, and she was excited to see what happened. These techniques were ones she hadn't even learned yet.

Kim looked down at the golden rhinoceros coin in her right hand. She was going to use the raw power it contained to make an explosion. This would have been the most likely outcome if she tried to connect it to the grid, why not try to find another way to manipulate that into happening. She glanced at the substance in her left hand that Mystic Mother had given her.

With a smile, she pushed to the center of the small group, where Novak stood looking with his back turned. "Hey Novak!" she called out, pressing the substance firmly into the coin.

Novak turned, surprised by the red Planetary ranger. He looked at what was in her hand. It appeared to be a power coin. If he could get his hands on it that would certainly increase his standing with Arius. He marched toward her just as the coin left her hands.

Kim watched him come toward her as the coin hit the ground with a thud. As he reached it, the coin started shaking, and a brilliant cyclone of orange energy poured out of the top of it. She still was not sure if it was going to work, but she did not want to be close by if it did. She teleported back to the outskirts of the fight, where the rest of the rangers were guarding the door.

Everyone noticed the sudden beam of orange light shooting through the sky. They watched as it seemed to fall back down just as quickly as it rose. Once it was out of sight, the ground started shaking, and before anyone could react, a brilliant orange explosion shot out from the center of the battlefield, knocking down anyone in its path.

It threw the rangers and those they were fighting against the building and everyone fell to the ground. As the orange light faded, Kim stood. "Damn." She swore under her breath. She had seriously underestimated the amount of energy in that coin. The thought occurred to her that she was glad she did not attempt to connect this to the grid, and she could not help but giggle at the thought of how bad she screwed this one up.

She turned back and glanced at all the other rangers. "Everyone ok?" she asked. She got a variety of responses as everyone worked and picking themselves back up.

Tommy grabbed his arm as he went to stand next to Kim. He knocked it hard against the building, he would not be surprised if he powered down and it had slipped out of its socket. "What the hell was that?" he asked as he got a good look at what was going on around them. Arius's forces were picking themselves up as well, at least the ones who could. The Keresecks at the center of the explosion were not getting back up. Shax was obviously injured, pulling his leg behind him as he headed to join whoever was left. Seconds later, they disappeared, presumably heading back to Arius.

"A little gift from the orange ranger." Kim said, quite amused. She walked out to the center of the explosion, with nine rangers moving at varying speeds behind her. She did feel bad that everyone was going to be feeling the effects of the explosion for a while. However, they were all alive and the scientists were safe, that was what mattered.

"What the hell?" Jason asked as he walked up beside her. "Last time I checked there was no orange ranger."

"There isn't." Kim said as she picked up the power coin off the ground. She could feel it immediately. There was no more power in it; it was now nothing more than a golden coin. "Fortunately for us I'm a really bad coin maker."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tommy questioned. Kim was not making any sense to him and he was not completely sure what was going on. He was trying to put the pieces together. He assumed the explosion came from the coin and that orange ranger was a reference to the orange light. However, he wanted to hear it from her.

"This coin was never meant to be a morphing coin." Kim offered a brief explanation. At least it never would be a morphing coin, not the way she made it. "However, it had enough power in it to still do some good with our fight against evil."

"So you used the coin as an explosive?" Elemi questioned. Kim nodded and he smiled from behind his helmet. It was a brilliant idea. They were lucky that she came up with something of that nature. She was always good at thinking on her feet.

Carri walked up and stood next to Kim. She glanced briefly at what remained next to the coin. "Is he dead?" she questioned. It was a stupid question, yet it seemed too good to be true.

"The only thing what's left of him can do is try to bounce around and bite your ankles." Jason commented as he glanced over at Novak's remains.

"Smart ass." Carri said as she glanced up and shot him a look through her helmet.

Rocky walked over and put an arm around her. "You did open yourself up for that one." He pointed out. He was glad this was over. He hated sitting there waiting before they could join the fight. Then when they got there, and the others were knee deep in Keresecks, he was immediately worried. He was not sure they were all going to come out of this in one piece.

"Maybe we should head back." Jen suggested from the back of the group. There was clean up to be done, and injuries to be healed. It was no surprise to her that the time guardian did all this. In the future, one of the things she was known for was her knowledge of coins and her ability to create them.

"She's right." Kim said as she turned to face the group. "Let's finish up here, and then we'll head home." She had a lot to do and a lot to get back to; she resisted the urge to groan aloud as she realized she had to go back to work. Hopefully there was work there for her still. With a sigh, she moved toward the front of the pack. Elemi joined her, and the two led the rangers back inside the building.

* * *

Arius stood, baffled, on the bridge of his small ship. He had never been this utterly embarrassed by another creature in his entire life. Shax was injured, Novak was dead, and he barely had any Keresecks to bring back to Deimos.

He knew Kaycea was powerful, that was never a question. She was the red Planetary ranger, a Muirantian, a Phaedosian warrior, one of Zordon's rangers… add all those factors together and she was someone that most would think twice before messing with. However, those factors did not scare him off. He knew he could handle her, that he could bring back the victory. He did not even have to kill her; just convince her to return with him. It was her human counterparts he had to kill, and she was making that difficult for him.

He had underestimated her, but he would not do it again. Using a coin as a weapon was not something he thought she would do. He was under what was apparently the wrong impression that coins were solely used for morphing purposes. However, she figured out how to turn one into a bomb. She was craftier than he gave her credit for.

Thanks to her explosion, this entire plan was lost. They had to retreat; they would not be able to recover and attack again before the Novas gave the order for the evacuation of their scientists. They were going to be moved, most likely to a remote location with a full time protection detail. He would never get their secrets now.

There was a second hand source to their secrets, one that did not create the technology but was told how to use it. This was also a brilliant mind, although this mind had a different set of information. He could make use of it though. He had thought about going there first, but he knew this was well guarded by Kaycea. Besides, he thought he would get more from the Nova's scientists.

Since that was a failure, he could go with his secondary plan. That was assuming Deimos did not kill him on the spot for this disaster. He sighed. This should have been a simple mission. Deimos should be emperor of evil by now. None of this was going his way.

Turning toward his minions, he directed them to set a course that would put them in Deimos's lap. All he could do now was hope that he would continue to let him try.

* * *

Kim stood in the bedroom of her apartment putting some of her things into a box. She got left in charge of finishing getting what was theirs in apartment ready to go while Tommy took off for Reefside to retrieve his things. She was glad she got apartment duty. Tommy rented a fully furnished apartment; she had much less work than he did.

Tommy probably would not be back until tomorrow morning, and they were going to start getting stuff moved once he returned. Initially he was going to try to make it back that night, but with all the delays in the day he left later in the afternoon than he wanted. By the time he got up to Reefside and got everything in the U-Haul, it was going to be too late to drive back.

The battle itself probably had not been the longest of his delays, although it was certainly part of it. They spent some time discussing the next steps with Elemi. There was the obvious relocation of the scientists, which Elemi was quickly moving to coordinate with other government officials. Then there was a lengthy discussion about the coin, and the use of a coin as a weapon. Something that would probably never happen again. The first coin was a fluke in its creation, something she was not sure if she could exactly replicate even if she tried. Plus she doubted Arius would fall for that again.

After the discussion about the coins ended, they all went back for medical workups then most of the team returned to what they were doing before the interruption. Kim and Tommy stayed for a lengthy discussion afterward. Her boyfriend had a lot he wanted to go over with her. They discussed the coins, only this one was different from the one they just had. He knew she was working with Ninjor some, but he had not realized she had actually made a coin. She countered that with the fact she had not made a working coin yet so she did not think it mattered.

Next, he went on about her making the decision and leaving him behind. He was a red, and as far as most of the rangers on this planet was concerned he was the senior red, he should have gone into the first wave of battle with her. While she agreed he was the senior red, she was still this teams' red and based her decision on strategy. They had worked together before; it made the most sense for them to go first.

After that particular discussion ended, Tommy got to what Kim felt as though was the real reason he was pissed she took off without him. Elemi. He had been his usual suggestive self after the battle and Tommy hated that she did not put her foot down with him. She tried to assure him he was just being silly. After all, it was no secret that she was with Tommy, and she had never shown any interest in the other red ranger. She understood his complaints, but she was still close with the Novas, and like it or not, history had proven that they needed them.

In the end, the two parted ways on relatively good terms. Both conceded that the other had a point, but both still believed themselves to be right. She said goodbye to him much later in the day than she intended. So much later, that she bent time quite a bit to get back to work without missing too much time. She was worried when she exited the bathroom. The first thing Sandy said was that Ashley demanded to see her.

Reluctantly, she headed for the bosses office. She explained the trip to the bathroom, and was immediately forgiven for that. However, she had no excuse for her lunch break. She told Ashley where she had been, and although the former yellow ranger did not punish her, she did get a lecture and was forced to stay late because of it.

It felt like forever before she could get out of her office. It was her own fault, and she could not do anything about it. Normally she would not have minded, but she had a lot to pack that night and got a late start doing it. She turned as she heard a shuffling noise behind her and saw Jen bringing in an empty box. Fortunately, she had volunteers to help her tonight. Hopefully they'd get done faster than she anticipated.

"Where do you want me to start?" Jen asked as she glanced around the bedroom.

Kim thought for a moment as she looked around. "Everything in here but the lamp is ours." She said before turning toward Jen. "What's in the closet, the dressers, everything sitting out, is fair game. Pick a spot and go for it." She was not really doing this with any order; she just wanted to get it done. She supposed she should not have put it off until the night before, but she had and she simply had to deal with it now.

"Sounds good." Jen replied as she sat her empty box down and singled out a section of the room to start with. She was glad she volunteered to help. She was still sore from the day's battle, but Billy had healed the most serious damage and she could work through the rest of it.

Kim had been somewhat surprised by her offer to help. They had all be in the infirmary, being looked at by Billy, when Kim mentioned the boxes of packing she still had to get done that night. Carri volunteered to help and make it a girls' night, and Jen took that opportunity to jump in as well.

She told them that she wanted to spend some more time with her teammates. She was the only one who did not live in Angel Grove, and she hardly saw them outside of rangering. While that was true, it was not the only reason she wanted to go. She wanted to be able to visit more with her mentor. This version of Kim wasn't the time guardian she knew from the future, but she still looked up to her and wanted a chance to spend more time with her. Since Wes was working late that night, she figured tonight was as good an opportunity as any.

Jen paused as she heard the front door slam, and the grunt made by their visitor as she stomped across the apartment. She entered the room, tossing her cell phone across the bed, watching as it bounced up and hit the wall before landing on the pillows with a thud. Then she dragged an empty box in behind her and yanked open a drawer, tossing clothes in to the box, obviously irritated about something.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't tear the apartment up the night we're moving out. I think Tommy was looking forward to getting his security deposit back." Kim commented. She was not quite sure what had her friend this aggravated, but she was certain she was about to find out.

"How bad would it be if from now on only I only took calls through my communicator?" she questioned, briefly looking up and catching Kim's glance. "No good comes out of the phone. People have been leaving me messages all day. Kat's were just… ugh… and I stupidly called my mother back."

"You and your mom don't get along?" Jen questioned. She did not know much about Carri outside of the battlefield. Her teacher never spoke much about her former teammates and Jen had not spent much time socially with her, other than one party that was overflowing with former rangers.

The white ranger snorted. "On a normal basis, we don't exactly see eye to eye. But with this wedding…" her voice trailed off as she let out a frustrated grunt. "She had five thousand things she wanted to argue with me over. The words 'Gail is doing what we told her to' mean nothing to that woman." She said, referencing her wedding coordinator. "I think she's still going to take it up with Gail. God forbid this is not my mother's picture perfect event. That poor woman is going to need to be paid double."

Carri sighed as she threw another item into the box. "Then we argued over the security company my mother hired after I specifically told her not to." She said as she paused.

"Not that I'm siding with your mother," Kim said, trying to be careful not to incur any of her friend's wrath, "but it is an outdoor wedding, your family is well known, there are going to be unwanted intruders."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Carri said with a sigh. She was worried about unknown intruders that were not from this planet. She had not thought about it much, until her mother started going on about security. However, the truth is, she is an active ranger now, who knew who or what was going to show up. The thought was enough to make her want to call the whole thing off and get married in the courthouse with the rangers as witnesses. The only thing holding her back was the disaster that particular move would create between families. She did not care, but she knew Rocky would.

She watched as Kim looked at her curiously. She made a face as she went to elaborate. "I'm not worried about some jerk with a digital camera; I think we can handle that. The reason I did not want my mom to hire security is that I am worried about real threats. What do you think is going to happen if Arius attacks? These people, who think they are more than capable thanks to their law enforcement background or military background, are going to get themselves killed. Then we're going to have to expose ourselves to try and save everyone – your boyfriend is going to love that."

Kim nodded. She could see the many ways this would not go well. "You can't call off the ceremony though. That's too suspicious." She knew her friend well; she knew she would use this as an excuse. This was way out of Carri's element. She knew she wanted to spend forever with Rocky, but the complete wedding thing was not something she was jumping for joy over.

"And I can't ask any former rangers to stand by as guards either. That's too suspicious." She could ask the former Astro team, although Ashley was a bridesmaid and she planned to have the rest of them in attendance. There were not many other teams with powers left. Lightspeed would do it, so would a few others, but that still left the problem of how did she explain her security detail being power rangers.

"What about the Silver Guardians?" Jen questioned as she thought about Carri's dilemma. "They were originally brought together as a private security force, and they have experience in the monster fighting department. And if you used Wes and Eric, you'd have two morphing red rangers there."

"That could work." Carri said as she thought it over for a moment. "As long as you don't mind your husband not being able to be your date." That was assuming Jen was coming. She never mentioned it to her before. She did not know her that well but they were teammates now, the invite was a given.

Jen shrugged as if to say it was fine with her. She did not even realize she was getting an invite, although she supposed fighting together side by side earned one a wedding invitation.

Kim shook her head no. "It doesn't make sense. The Silver Guardians work for the city now. And even if Carri could hire them, what reason would she give?"

"The Silver Guardians are still run by Mr. Collins. The city contracts them out and pays them like a police force. That's why they've taken on other citywide duties." Jen quickly explained. "They're non-profit now, but Mr. Collins knows about the rangers, if you explained the situation to him I'm sure he'd let you hire out a small team for the weekend. He could say that they were off duty, it shouldn't be a problem as it doesn't interfere with them protecting Silver Hills."

"We could teleport Wes and Eric back if it something serious came up." Kim said as she thought it over. "That still doesn't give Carri a legitimate reason to hire them, seeing as how they are out of the security for hire business."

"They're the best security force in the state, right?" Carri questioned, watching as Jen nodded in response. "Then I'll play on that. I will throw a public fit if I have to; make it look like the spoiled daughter of a wealthy television producer refuses to have anybody keeping trash out of her wedding but the best. The tabloids have been fabricating stories about me enough lately, it would make sense I would want to make damn sure nobody was sneaking in. It wouldn't be a stretch to believe that my dad threw enough money at Wes's dad to rent out off duty Silver Guardians and let me have my way."

"I can go with that." Kim replied. She would have to run it by Tommy since this was about more than just their team and their mission, but given all the other scenarios, she imagined she assumed he would agree that this was the best.

"I'll see if I can set up a meeting for you with Wes's dad one day next week." Jen replied. She turned back to her packing when they heard a phone ring. It was obvious that it was coming from the bed. When Carri refused to acknowledge it, Jen glanced over at the caller ID. "It's from Kat."

With an irritated noise, Carri slammed the empty drawer shut. "She's just going to leave another insane message."

"You two fighting again?" Kim asked as she glanced over at her. The two cousins tried, she knew they did, but more often than not, they ended up back at odds with each other.

"No…. maybe…." Carri's voice trailed off as she glanced at the two other women in the room. "You have to swear not to repeat this to anyone." This would be more than embarrassing if it got around the ranger circuit. She knew the boys were not going to talk, and Kat was too mortified to say anything to anyone. She should not be repeating this, but she had to vent somewhere and Kim had experience listening to her go off about Kat and Chris.

"Carri you know me." Kim replied with a sigh. Carri glanced at her again and Kim through her hands up. "We swear." She said as Jen nodded in agreement.

"So this afternoon I dropped by Rocky's office to meet him for lunch. I was early; he was still working with Tommy and Jase. Apparently they got caught on some pop up for spandex sex dot com." She paused as Kim rolled her eyes heavenward. "Part of the sight is role play. And you know what spandex role play involves?"

"Rangers?" Jen guessed. Considering what the rangers meant to her, that was a rather disturbing thought.

Carri nodded and continued. "There was a teaser clip with a pink Zeo. She was doing her thing and dropped uniform in front of the camera and it was Kat."

"No." Kim said her eyes getting wide. She and Kat had their issues in the past, but she knew Kat and she did not think she was the kind of person who did this sort of thing. Of course, there one part of this that bothered her more than anything. "So Tommy saw Kat naked?"

"Just the backside." Carri replied with a shrug, the idea just now occurring to her that mentioning Tommy's name in all this was probably a bad move. They all saw it, although she doubted that made any difference. However, she opened her big mouth and now she was going to try to play it off causally. Tommy did not love Kat, but she still did not want Kim to think about him seeing her naked. "Anyway that's not the point."

Kim cocked her head to the side and gave her a look. It may not be the point, but it was an important point to her. Kat was his ex-girlfriend. It did not matter that he was not interested, he still saw her partially naked. It brought up so many questions. She was curious; she wanted to confront him about it. She wanted to know what he thought… if he liked it enough to watch the entire video… or if he was comparing the two pink rangers.

Of course, no matter how much she wanted to know, she could never actually ask any of those questions. She did not think there were any good answers to be given there, plus it would make her look like the jealous girlfriend. She could not come across as jealous. She was not jealous, at least not now. She could be after she heard the answers to the questions. That would open up a new assortment of problems. She would not be able to interact with Kat without thinking about it. She knew she was going to see Kat more now with Carri's wedding coming up.

She could not even tell Tommy she knew. Then he would work hard to apologize and assure her he was not interested. It would be an awkward moment, and it would continue for a while afterwards. He saw her, he would know she knew he saw her, and that would put a weird tension between the two of them. She almost wished Carri had not said anything. Of course, Jason knew too, the chances were slim to none that neither of them would have told her. There was no real reason to get worked up over it, she was going to have to suck it up and get over it.

"The point is." Jen said, stopping before finishing her sentence. She wanted to spare her teacher that particular thought by continuing the conversation. However, she was not sure she should say what she felt like was the truth about the situation. Kat was a retired ranger, to wear a replica of the uniform in the bedroom then film it and put it on the internet… it was quite unprofessional and it was something that would have gotten a person thrown out of Time Force. However she did not know much about Kat's relationship with Carri, it was not her place to say something negative.

Carri took the statement as her cue to continue. "The point is this is not something Kat would do. This was something her weasel of a husband did. Her role plays for him in the bedroom and he secretly videotapes it and it ends up online."

"What's she going to do?" Kim questioned. She felt bad for Kat. Despite the differences between the two over the years, she did not deserve this. If Chris was her husband... well she never would have married Chris but if she did, she would leave him over this.

"That's the thing." Carri said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I told her all of this and I volunteered to take care of the problem for her." She scowled as Kim snickered. Kim knew what she meant by take care of the problem. Carri made a face and continued. "She's not doing anything about it. She's all about forgiveness and that this is what's meant by commitment and I don't understand the depth of commitment that's involved in marriage."

Kim could not help but laugh aloud. That was the most absurd thing she ever heard. "I suppose f that's her criteria, none of us understand commitment."

"Yeah well." Carri said as she rolled her eyes. "She's been leaving me messages all afternoon. Apparently, she confronted Chris. He made the tape as a birthday gift to himself. He uploaded it to the computer for reasons I don't want to know. I guess they took the computer in for repairs, and he is claiming the repairman must have uploaded it. She said she saw the tape; there was no good view of her face. It is grainy; unless you know her, you probably willn't recognize her. They are trying to get it removed. Meanwhile she and Chris have discussed it and it's not his fault and they're on fabulous terms."

"Her husband uses a hidden camera in the bedroom and they are on fabulous terms?" Kim questioned, eyebrow raised. Carri simply shrugged. Kim sighed. "You know you can't pick the people your family members fall in love with."

"But he's such a douche." Carri said with a groan. "Time and time again he proves his unworthiness and she still loves him. Some of those crazy stupid monsters Rita and Zedd used to send our way make more sense than this."

Kim snorted. "You know what the difference is?" She asked, making eye contact with her best friend as the corner of her mouth twitched upward. Carri gave her a look as if encouraging her to continue. "With those crazy stupid monsters, you could handle them the way they deserved to be handled. Morph, kick them into little monster pieces, and repeat when necessary."

"Yeah." Carri replied, smiling a bit as well. "It's too bad I can't morph and strike Chris with lightning." She paused as she contemplated the idea for a moment. "You think Arius is into turning humans into monsters? I can accidentally shove him into his path. Or maybe you could talk Mystic Mother into doing it once for old times' sake."

"Oh I'm sure she wouldn't mind returning to her evil roots just so you can get some of your frustrations out." Kim said sarcastically, rolling her eyes heavenward. When her eyes settled and met Carri's, the white ranger smiled and she could not help but chuckle. "Now let's focus on getting this place packed. Tommy and I have a house to move into tomorrow."

Carri gave her a little salute and went back to focusing on the boxes. Kim smiled as she turned all her attention back to packing as well. They were moving into their house, finally. It was a good feeling. She and Tommy were officially settling into Angel Grove together. Living in a fully furnished apartment, it had not felt official. Even though he was teaching part time at the high school, she kept waiting for him to say he missed Reefside and that he wanted to return.

She did not know why she had that insecurity. She felt like this was too good to be true. When they were sixteen, she dreamed of them having a house together. However, the road to get here has been a lot rougher than she thought it would be. This time last year, she was positive that road dead-ended. Things over the last year had changed, and their relationship grew exponentially. They were in love, and it was not like it was in years past. They were adults now, what they had was deeper and more satisfying than it had ever been before.

There were many things they argued about, which added to her insecurities. Most of it involved the rangers and her powers. However, at the end of the day, in the rare moments they were removed from all that, the arguments were forgotten and they enjoyed each other's company. She hoped that this latest campaign would not change all that. The arguments had been more frequent, mostly because Tommy had trouble stepping back and giving her the reigns. She understood, in all the years she had served with him prior to this one he had been the undisputed team leader. That did not mean she had to like it though.

She sighed as she put another item into her box, filling it to the top. As of right now, the ranger related debates were not spilling over into their home life. She hoped it stayed that way, but only time would tell. She wasn't going to think too much about it, not now. Now was the time to look toward the future, toward their new home and toward building their lives together.

Kim closed the lid to the box and grabbed the tape off the dresser, sliding it across the top and sealing it shut. This might not have been how her sixteen-year-old self envisioned it happening, but tomorrow she was making a big step with Tommy. By this time tomorrow, the two of them will be settled into their first home together. Kim smiled as she reached for another box. She could not wait for tomorrow.


	9. Choices

**Disclaimer:** The Power Rangers and known characters from their world belong to Saban. Thomas, the DG, K, Kemora, and the Novas all come from the mind of KSuzie and cannot be used without her permission. Everyone else belongs to me.  
**Author's Notes:** There's a little blurb about the DG and Kim's first official encounter with Thomas in chapter one of Dark Inheritance if you haven't read Legacy. For more information on Thomas, the DG, and the way they operate check out KSuzie's _The Coins Series_.

Dark Inheritance  
"Choices"

It was very early in the morning when two rangers found themselves walking into the lobby of one of the largest buildings in Silver Hills, where they had scheduled a meeting early enough that they could get back to their normal workday duties.

The white ranger, not one to want to get up for her own job, was feeling tired and grumpy. "Couldn't we have just teleported." She grumbled.

"This isn't official business." Her fiancé reminded her. Although he supposed in some ways it was. It was their solution to a somewhat ranger related problem. It was the solution to the issue of security at their wedding, something Jen had come up with and Tommy and Kim agreed on. The silver ranger even thought it was a really good idea. It had taken them a week to get a meeting, and all parties agreed that early morning was best, which was why they were here slightly before seven thirty on a Monday morning.

"Should be." Carri said with a sigh as one of the Silver Guardians approached her.

"Can I help you?" The man asked as he glanced at the woman and her guest.

"We have a meeting with Mr. Collins." She replied. She did not expect to run into the Silver Guardians in the lobby although she should not be surprised. This building was still their main building of operations. According to Jen, once the Guardians were no longer hired help they had thought about building them a new facility, but they had carved out a good set up here and it was cheaper just to leave things be.

"If you'll come with me I'll clear you for the meeting and we'll go through the proper security checks." He said as he turned and walked off. This was his job. There was at least one member of the team in the lobby at all times. It was not as much to protect the lab as it was to protect the Silver Guardian's base.

"Security checks?" Carri questioned. She was not sure if that was a good idea. She would have to figure something out. It was too early in the morning to go through this crap. "Look, if you'll just let Mr. Collins know we're here I'm sure we can bypass the security checks."

The man in front of her spun around and faced her. "Mam I don't know who you think you are but no visitor gets through here without getting sent through the security filters." He said a serious attitude evident in his tone.

Carri was tired and punchy and it did not take much to set her off. Rocky stuck a hand in front of her before she could say anything. "It's not worth ending up in jail just to skip a few security checks." He said, trying to get her to drop it.

"What kind of security checks? We have already passed the weapons check. We're clean." Mostly clean anyway. She did not really want to go through any additional checkpoints. There were many ways she could fail checkpoints. If they were doing a serious background check, she was in trouble. She may have convinced her family that she traveled the world for four years, but if anybody looked into it, she fell off the map for four years. With no credit card charges, airline tickets or passport stamps there's no way anyone would buy that story. Then depending on what kind of technologically advanced scans they could do, she could be in trouble.

The Silver Guardian made a face. "This building has access to all kinds of technology – including ranger technology – and nobody gets through without us thoroughly checking them out. If you don't like it I will remove you from the premises."

Carri laughed aloud. "Are you serious?" They were as close to original rangers that had ever been in this building, and they wanted to go through security filters to keep them from ranger technology.

"Deadly. Now"

"Matthews." A voice spoke sharply from across the room, stopping the Silver Guardian before he could continue.

The man they had been dealing with turned and saluted the man who had called his name. "Sir, this couple is refusing to go through security. I was just about to escort them from the premises."

Carri made eye contact with the man coming her way and simply grinned at him. She was guilty as charged. Eric tried not to smile back as he turned to face the other Guardian. "I'll handle them. You are dismissed."

Rocky let out a sigh of relief as the other man left. "Seriously babe did you have to make this difficult?" he said before looking toward Eric. "I'm sorry about that."

"No worries." Eric said as he glanced at the two of them. "Unless of course there was a reason you didn't want to go through security."

Carri looked up at him, a sly grin on her face as she reached into her back pocket and pulled something out. "What would your security checks say about that?" she asked as she produced a gold coin with a panther engraved on it. She did not always carry it with her. She happened to bring it with her this morning because Kim wanted to borrow it later to tinker with their old grid. She was still trying to figure out how to get it running again, she just was not there yet.

Eric let out a low whistle as he realized what she held. Their computers would have picked up on the ranger related energies and they would have had a field day. "I think they would have said to detain and study you." He replied as he turned toward the elevators. "Come on, Wes and his dad are upstairs waiting."

The two Planetary Rangers followed Eric into the elevator. He hit the button for one of the top floors and they rode up in silence. The elevator stopped and they got out, following Eric down the hallway and into an office where they found two people waiting for them. After the introductions were out of the way, Mr. Collins gestured for everyone to sit.

"So," he started as he glanced from one ranger to the other, "my son tells me you want to hire the Silver Guardians?"

"Mainly Wes and Eric, and then whoever else they can afford to give the weekend of our wedding off." Carri said. She noticed the look on his face, and realized she was asking a lot when she said it. It was not odd for someone to pay an off duty police officer for security. However, she was not just asking for an off duty officer, she was asking for two power rangers and a team of their highly trained coworkers.

"You do realize that if I were to let you hire both Wes and Eric, you'd leave this city without any rangers?" Mr. Collins pointed out. That was his problem with what they wanted. This city had not seen monsters in a while, but he was not sure they could chance an attack while both rangers were gone.

"We would have the city monitored." Rocky assured him. "At the first sign of trouble, we could send other rangers here." Neither Kim nor Tommy thought there would be any real problems in Silver Hills during their rehearsal dinner or wedding. If there were, there was a good chance that they could get Lightspeed Rescue on standby. However, if it was more than Lightspeed could handle then most likely it will be a serious problem that will require everyone to stop everything and attend to it anyway.

Mr. Collins was hesitant so Carri continued. "As I'm sure your son told you, we're rangers. We are fighting the current bad guy. Wes and Eric helped us with him once they know him. If he attacks during our wedding, the only way to keep our identities safe and to keep our friends and family safe is to have rangers there as security. The only way we can get rangers there without the public becoming suspicious is hire a real security force in the Silver Guardians."

"Alright." Mr. Collins said, mulling over her words for a moment. "Let's say I agree with you that you need ranger protection." Which he did, she could not have just any security force out there in the event that the attacker was more than just the paparazzi. Without training, they will be slaughtered. The problem is he still did not see how this was going to work in her favor. "How are you going to get the rest of the world to believe that you need the Silver Guardians?"

"If you say yes, when I leave here, I'm going to call my mom and throw a fit. Tell her that if I am going to have security, it's only going to be the best, that I will only have the Silver Guardians. She'll cave to avoid the headache and call you, then you'll have to act like you don't know what she's talking about and haggle with her a bit." Carri said, watching as Mr. Collins raised an eyebrow. She simply shrugged in response. "Then I'll have the Silver Guardians and it may get out to the press that I refused to have anything less than the best and they'll chalk it up to a rich girl hissy fit. We get rangers, and nobody is any wiser."

Mr. Collins leaned back in his chair for a moment as he thought it over. She needed them there was no doubting that. If it was not going to affect their duties in Silver Hills, this may start a new trend. Charging for off duty law enforcement officers was not unheard of. For the right price, he could lend his Guardians out to high-end events around California. It would have to be enough money to cover both himself and the Guardians. After all, they already put in hours as city employees protecting their town. He would need enough to motivate them to volunteer for extra hours.

"Ok." He finally agreed as he leaned forward and put his elbows on the desk. "But the Silver Guardians don't come cheap."

Carri caught Wes rolling his eyes from his position behind his father. She tried not to smile as she focused on Mr. Collins. "Don't worry." She said, giving him a wicked grin. "My mom is going to pay to avoid all the drama I'll promise to cause."

"Good." Mr. Collins replied as he looked at the couple in front of him. This may be the start of something very profitable for himself and the Silver Guardians.

* * *

It was mid-morning and Billy found himself sitting in his office, waiting for his next candidate for his new position. He was having trouble finding someone to fill the spot. It was a major position. He needed someone he felt like he could trust to head this huge project. He also needed someone who was smart enough to take what he wanted to do and run with it.

It would have been simpler if he could oversee the project himself. However, he was too busy with all the other work on his plate. His company has him overseeing scientists in several different areas. He works closely with them to bring his ideas to light. He has to work closely with them otherwise they would be lost.

They were some of the brightest scientific minds, but what he did was incorporate many new concepts into every day uses. Some of the things he created had a range of applications from the complex quantum computing to the more simple wireless communication. The people he worked for thought he was a genius, coming up with all this from scratch. His secret was that he did not start from scratch. He started with technology rangers used and technology based on other worlds.

He was very slowly bringing his home world up to speed with the rest of the intergalactic community by creating a combination of what he learned out there versus what they had down here. This planet was not ready to make the giant leaps and bounds it would take to catch up. He was all right with doing things slowly though, it was better that way. It was easier for them to believe he came up with everything completely from scratch. Which was not far from the truth, most of his ideas were simply based in other technologies and he ran with them from there.

The one area that he did not have time to touch on, the one area that could really benefit from ranger technology, was law enforcement. The ideas he wanted to incorporate there were distant enough from the other work he was doing that he would need to create an entirely new department devoted to law enforcement.

His employers were behind him, they thought that this could bring them huge government contracts and a lot of money. However, they did not want him to abandon their other moneymaking department or try and fail to divide his time between the two. The only way that he would get his law enforcement ideas off the ground was if he could hire someone to oversee them. This brought him back to his current problem, finding someone he could trust that was smart enough to take the technology and run with it without much guidance from him.

Billy glanced down at the resume in front of him. The woman he was interviewing today was Katherine Manx. According to her resume, she went to Harvard, and worked for NASADA after graduation. She looked good on paper, however he had researched her and was unable to find much about her. That bothered him, but he was going to try to look past it, at least until he conducted his interview.

He heard a knock on his door. "Come in." he called out. The door open, and a woman he assumed was Katherine walked through.

"I'm Dr. Katherine Manx, but you can call me Kat." She said as she walked in and extended her hand out. They shook hands, and then she took a seat as he gestured for her to do so.

She was nervous. She had not felt this way in a long time. She needed this job though. She has not been paid in a long time. When she came to Earth, she had no idea things were going to be this hard. She escaped here because of this planet's rangers, rangers that had recently defeated Dark Specter. She wanted to feel safe. There were so many things to be afraid of in the galaxy, including Emperor Gruumm, who was making a lot of noise conquering worlds.

When she got to Earth, she quickly realized that although there were several ranger teams here, this was still a closed society. She would never be accepted for who she was. Fortunately, she was human enough in her appearance that she could easily cover up her cat like features.

Her next task was employment, which she had to have to survive here. She did not know who would accept a scientist not of this world. It was pure luck that NASADA was looking for someone of her caliber to head up a new program. They did not even mind that she was not completely human; they helped her create an Earth based identity and keep her original identity hidden.

Things were going well the first two years. It was when she started working on a huge project that things went terribly wrong. She was creating a new morphing technology, something she was excited about. To this day, she was not sure what happened, but one of her experiments took a surprise turn and it backfired, causing a small explosion.

At first NASADA overlooked it. She was on to something; they did not want to deter her. Everyone seemed to be fine; they did not think it was a problem. A little over a year later the human scientists working for her started showing signs of serious side effects. She was able to get everything under control; however, the changes to their DNA were permanent.

She thought NASADA would overlook this as well. She was on the verge of getting a morpher together that was going to revolutionize the way they protected this planet. However, several months later her superior came to her and told her that they were temporarily suspending the project. They told her she'd still get paid, and that they were going to resume the project after they got a few things sorted out.

That was a few years ago. The checks kept coming, and she kept assuming that they would start the project back up any day now. A few months ago, the checks suddenly stopped with no explanation. She tried to contact NASADA, but no one there would return her calls. She was alone, without a job, on a world that was not quite ready to accept her for who she was.

She had applied to a few jobs that she thought her intelligence level would fit. Other than working on new law enforcement related technology, this job description was somewhat cryptic. However, it was working for Dr. William Cranston, and she had seen some of the advances he made in technology. This might be a good fit for her, if he would look past her mostly falsified resume and hire her.

Billy looked the woman over. "If you'll just take off your hat, we'll begin." He spoke. He did not find it appropriate to wear a hat in an interview, unless one was hiding something.

"Oh." Kat said, reaching up to briefly touch the hat. It was the only thing concealing her ears from the public. "I, well, I can't."

"You can't?" Billy repeated. She had to be hiding something. His mind immediately ran to the worst-case scenario. He had trouble looking her up because she did not exist. She was only here to get hidden footage of himself and his labs. "What do you mean you can't?" He asked, giving her a chance to explain herself.

"It's a scalp disease." Kat said trying to think of a reason he would believe her. "The hat keeps the top of my head medicated." Perhaps it was a little farfetched, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

"Then you won't mind if I take a quick look underneath it." Billy replied, flashing her a smile. He was not going to call her a liar, not yet. If she would simply take it off and verify her story, he would have no problem letting her wear the hat.

"I don't think that's possible." Kat said, sitting uncomfortably in her chair as Dr. Cranston stared at her. "Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe"

By that point Billy had it firmly entrenched in his mind that she was a spy. Before she could sneak out and save her skin, he reached across the table and pulled her hat off her head, stopping her mid-sentence. As he grabbed the hat, he quickly realized it was nothing more than a hat. What it was hiding was the pair of ears that was poking out through the brunette hair of the woman in front of him.

"Who are you?" he asked simply, waiting eagerly for her response.

Kat was somewhat surprised by how calm he was being. "I am Dr. Kat Manx. I'm just not from this world. I did work for NASADA until they decided to suspend the project I was on."

"You are well educated?" Billy asked, watching as she nodded in response.

"Intergalactically yes." She said, elaborating on her nonverbal response. "Before I came here I was at the front of the scientific intergalactic field."

Billy smiled at her. "I was a part of the intergalactic scientific field myself once years ago." He said, somewhat excitedly. This meant that she had more than enough knowledge to take what he wanted to do and run with it. Trust was up in the air, but she worked with NASADA, who acknowledged the rangers and kept secrets for them. That was in her favor.

"Wait." Kat said, her eyes lighting up in recognition. "Are you the Billy Cranston who once worked on Aquitar?" she asked. His tenure there had been short, but what he did accomplish is well known in the scientific community. She watched as he nodded in response. "So then you used to work with the rangers?"

"I still do. I provide technological assistance to the current team." Billy replied, making his mind up. He was not going to find a better candidate for the position. He needed her here helping him. Before she could continue, he spoke. "I would like for you to come on as the head of a new department, one that is going to be created to work on technology for law enforcement. I need someone I can trust, someone who can take my ideas from ranger technology and create applications for law enforcement."

Kat smiled and tried to hide her excitement. She was looking for this job. He wanted to apply ranger technology to law enforcement, which was practically what she was doing for NASADA. Sure, she was going to have to go off of his suggestions, but she was fairly certain he'd allow her to pull in some of her own ideas as well. Either way it would be up to her to create the technology. And he worked with the current ranger team. He may ask her to apply her knowledge toward ranger technology. "I accept your offer." She said, not having to think twice about it.

"Good." Billy replied as he stood. "You'll have your own lab, which only you and I will have access to so you will be allowed to be yourself in there." He said as he handed her hat back to her. "For now you'll need to wear this. We're going to have to go get you the proper clearance."

Kat nodded as she took the hat from him, placing it on her head and being careful to make sure there was no sign of the ears underneath it. She watched as Dr. Cranston walked out from behind his desk and headed toward the door. Wasting no time, she followed him. Things were definitely starting to look up for her.

* * *

Kim watched as Carri jumped up on a console and made herself comfortable. "You don't have to stay." She assured her as she glanced at the panther coin in her hand. "I'll return this when I'm done." She just had a few tests to run to see how the repairs on their old grid were coming along. She needed coins to run the test. She had her crane coin and needed to borrow the panther coin.

"I'm good." Carri said with a shrug. She did not have much else to do. It was amazing how far ahead one got when they were dragged out of bed at an ungodly hour to have a meeting in another town. "I'll worry about work later."

"Alright." Kim said as she turned back toward what she was doing. She did not have time to discuss the matter. She was using her lunch break to check this out. She supposed it could have waited, but she did something last night and she was hoping that she made some serious progress on getting the grid back up and running. They did not need it immediately, after all they did have the Planetary powers, but she would feel better with it there as a backup.

There had not been any indication that Arius could do anything to their powers. However, he had gotten more and more serious, and after they got stranded without their full team powers in their last battle with Rhianna, Kim and Billy did not want to take any chances. They could get the coins on one of the newer grids, but they would not be as powerful as they were on the ancient grid they used last year. Billy had even begun working on the Zeo Crystal, trying to get the crystal fully functional again as a backup source of power.

Kim took both power coins and walked over toward a small machine. She put one coin on one side and the other coin on the other and proceeded to run two different experiments. Both experiments were supposed to lead to the same outcome; she just was not sure which method was going to be more effective.

Taking a step back while the machine did the job she and Billy programmed it for, she turned toward the white ranger. "How did your meeting go?"

"With Wes's dad?" Carri questioned, watching as Kim nodded in response. "It went well. He is going to let us use the Guardians. I called my mom and gave a convincing argument as to why she needed to call Mr. Collins and make the proper arrangements. So we're good." By convincing argument, she made enough of a stink that she was fairly certain her mother hung up and went straight for a before lunch margarita.

"Good." Kim replied. She was grateful for Jen's suggestion of the Silver Guardians. She had a lengthy discussion with Tommy over it, and he agreed that if they were going to go through with a large wedding most likely to be in the public eye, the Guardians were the best way to go. The machine made a beeping noise and she turned toward it briefly.

She turned back toward Carri when her phone rang. She watched Carri pick it up and glance at it, making an irritated face before hitting the button to dismiss the call and setting it back down. "Your mom?" Kim questioned, since she figured that she was one of the few people that would cause that reaction from her.

"Kat." Carri replied with a sigh. She did not really want to talk to her cousin at the moment.

"You're still not taking her calls?" Kim asked. It had been a little more than a week since the white ranger had started ignoring her cousin's calls thanks to their spat. The spat was due to Kat's less than stellar husband accidentally letting a sex tape leak, a tape the former pink ranger didn't even know existed.

That tape had been nipping at Kim since she heard about it. It was not the tape itself, it was not even the fact that Kat refused to see the kind of man she married. It was that her boyfriend saw a clip of the tape. She did not tell him she knew, and she worked hard to not let it interfere with her interactions with her boyfriend. Their first night in their new house it popped in her mind, but since then she has worked hard at keeping the thought squashed. Eventually the thought would disappear entirely. She just had to wait for the eventually. Maybe she would bend time and take off for a few years to work on her powers. That should do the trick.

"About Chris? I refuse to discuss that issue." Carri said, knowing what she was referring to. She did not want to hear Kat's excuses for her husband. Kat knew where she stood, and her position was not going to change. Her husband needed a good kick in the ass or two. However, these phone calls were on an entirely different issue. "Mom called Kat this morning, complaining that I was freaking out and that she needed to rein me in. She's calling to rescue me or some crap like that."

"Shouldn't you just tell her what happened?" Kim asked. This morning was nothing more than Carri manipulating her mother into doing something that would protect their friends and family from a potential attack. Kat would understand that.

Carri simply shrugged in response. She figured she should, she just did not want to yet. She did not know why she was keeping her cousin out of the loop. She would fill her in eventually. She supposed she simply did not want to talk to her because it may lead to another conversation about how wonderful Chris is and she may just puke. Before Carri could voice those thoughts aloud, a small explosion came from one side of the machine, quickly followed by the other.

Kim let out an agitated noise as she went to check on it. In a flash of red, she was gone, and seconds later, she returned. "Stupid grumpy ancient grids." She muttered, irritated with their lack of corporation. Part of the reason these repairs were so long and tedious was because the grid was old. Older grids tended to not let one work with them as easily as the newer ones did.

"What happened?" Carri asked, hopping up and walking over to the machine. She started peering through the smoke that was pouring out of it, trying to get a good look at the coins.

Kim sighed. "Nothing, that's the problem," She was hoping that one of the two methods would at least show that the grid was recognizing the coins. Then she would know that they were on the right path of getting it repaired and up and running again. Apparently, the grid wanted nothing to do with either coin no matter how she tried to get it to acknowledge them.

"So now what?" Carri said, squinting and still attempting to view the coins.

"Now I make a few adjustments later and try this step again." Kim replied. This step was the first step that had to be completed, and it was also the hardest step to complete. They had been working a long time to get this far. She hoped that with a few minor adjustments, she could get the grid to recognize the coins. From there it would be easy. She would be on the right path; she could keep working on the grid until she could jump start it to finish the repairs itself. Then they should be able to get the coins set back up and morph no problem.

Kim watched her friend stare. She slipped in to Carri's line of sight and reached into the machine, producing a power coin. After slipping the panther coin into Carri's hand, she reached back in and grabbed the crane and stowed it away in her pocket. "I'm going to head back to work, let the grid settle down a bit." Kim said once her coin was safely tucked away.

"Yeah." Carri agreed with a sigh. "I should be doing something work related too." There was definitely work to be done, and she would do it, even though it had been a long day already.

"Later." Kim said teleporting out in a flash of red light, the white ranger teleporting out behind her.

* * *

Rocky sat in the office of his Angel Grove School, working on paperwork. It was not the most glamorous thing to be doing, but it was a part of owning his own businesses and he devoted some time every day to go through the papers he collected.

He pushed one paper aside and took a moment to stretch. As he did, there was a knock on the door. "Come in." he called out.

The door opened and a familiar face entered, a baby on her hip. "Hey Rocky." She said, taking the baby's hand and giving him a wave.

"Jessica, hey." Rocky replied, suppressing a groan. She was certainly the last person he wanted to see walking through that door. The text messages she had been sending had slowed down since she brought the baby home, but they had not stopped. He was not replying on purpose and she would keep sending them.

She waited briefly for him to say hello to the baby. When he did not, she continued. "We have a name now." She said cheerfully. She had not named her son when he was born because she was not sure what his name should be. He has simply been baby boy for the first month of his life. "It's Robert. But I like to call him Robby."

"That's good." Rocky replied, not quite sure what to think of the name. Anybody but Jessica and he would think of it as a coincidence. Robby sounded a bit like his own name. Since she still had not given up on getting him to drop everything and play house with her, he assumed she was trying to make the baby more and more like his son. He wished he could figure out who the kid's real father was and nudge Jessica in his direction. Assuming that would actually work.

"Robbie wanted to come over and play with you," she said as she took a few steps toward his desk, "and I figured why not, I need to talk to you anyway." She finished, thrusting the infant out toward her boss.

"Oh, um, ok." Rocky said, extending his arms and grabbing the infant. He did not want to, but she had practically thrust him in his arms. He would not have been surprised if she had let him go had he not taken the baby. He was comfortable with kids, he changed and fed and held his youngest siblings after they had been born, but that did not mean he wanted to hold her boy.

Jessica started cooing and she reached into her pocket, pulling out her camera phone before snapping pictures. "You two are so cute together."

"Uh-huh." Rocky replied, groaning inwardly. He had no idea where she was going with this. These pictures were probably going to end up online or in the paper. Worst case scenario, she was planning on leaving them on Carri's desk or sending them straight to her inbox. To say that would make her upset would not begin to describe it. He needed to hurry up and send her on her way before she figured out how to make this worse. "So what is it that you wanted to talk about?"

"I should be cleared to work in two weeks. I wanted to make sure everything was good to go." Jessica said with a smile. Now that the baby was born, she needed the money. The moment the doctor gave her the all clear she was going to jump in her car and run to work.

"That should be fine." Rocky said shifting as the baby started to fidget. He hired a temporary replacement for her, but she was prepared to step back when Jessica was ready to return. That was because his replacement was one of his sisters, who was still in high school. She has been coming in every afternoon and on Saturday's, doing work and glancing at her homework when she had spare time. She enjoyed the extra cash, but she missed her social life.

"Great. So." Jessica stopped short as the door opened.

"Rocky DeSantos?" A male voice questioned.

Rocky glanced past Jessica at the man in the suit. He did not know neither who he was nor what this was about, but he was grateful for the interruption. "Yes?"

The man walked past Jessica, briefly glancing at her before turning toward Rocky and noticing the baby in his hands. He was happy for his client that he was making this particular delivery. From the looks of things, it might be necessary.

He sat his briefcase down on the desk and opened it up, pulling out a manila envelope. "These are for you." He said, holding the envelope out toward him. He watched as Rocky stood and handed the baby back over to the woman before taking the envelope.

"What is this?" Rocky asked, glancing at the front of it. His name was printed front and center, and in the corner was printed the name of a law firm.

The man ignored the question, simply handing him another document and an ink pen. "Sign here saying you have received the documents."

He started to feel somewhat panicked as he reached out and grabbed the pen, signing his name where indicated. Before he could ask another question, the man took his document back and set it in his briefcase, shutting it and snapping it closed. "Have a good day." He said, turning and walking out of the office as quickly as he had entered.

"What's going on?" Jessica asked as she looked at Rocky, who had sunk back down into his seat.

"You don't have anything to do with this?" He had to ask. It would not surprise him if it was a paternity suit, or some kind of other trick helmed by Jessica.

"No." Jessica replied, somewhat insulted that he would ask. She would never do anything to hurt Rocky. That bitch girlfriend of his, yes, but not Rocky.

"Thanks for stopping by. If you don't mind, I need to attend to this." Rocky said, his way of dismissing her. If it was not her, he had no idea what it was, and that had him worried.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you?" Jessica asked. If it was something bad, she could be there to comfort him, make him feel better.

"No." Rocky replied quickly. That was the last thing he wanted. "I'll be fine. I'll see you in Stone Canyon in two weeks." He said. He watched her frown in response, but she resigned herself to the fact she could not stay and turned around, taking Robbie out of the office.

The blue ranger waited until the door got shut before he opened the envelope. He pulled out the papers and started reading them. As he did, his heart practically sunk to the floor. According to the top sheet, this was from representatives of Miss Carri L Hillard.

He did not understand why she would send him legal papers through a lawyer without talking to him or telling him what it was all about. As he read further, he quickly figured out why he had gotten the documents.

This was a prenuptial agreement. She wanted him to sign a prenup. He did not understand it. It was not the prenuptial agreement itself he did not get. It was no secret that she was coming into her own now, and between what she was making and what she stood to one day inherit from her parents, she was worth quite a bit of money.

He was somewhat insulted that she thought they would not be together forever. After all they had been through the last eleven years, he would have thought that was enough proof that they were in this together until the end. He was also hurt at the indication that he was marrying her for her money. He did not even comprehend what kind of money her family had when he first fell in love with her.

Worst of all, she wanted him to sign this and she could not tell him herself. She had to send it through her law firm to his office. This was something they should have talked about, should have discussed, so that he would not have been blindsided like this. He would have wanted to know where she was coming from.

He tried to compose himself as he put the legal documents back into the folder they came in. He refused to sign them, not now, not without confronting her about them first. If they were going to build what he considered to be a loving, stable marriage, it was not going to be built on a foundation like this.

Carefully closing the envelope back up, he pushed it aside and went back to concentrate on his work.

* * *

Arius stood on his command ship. He was alive, which was nothing more than a gift from Deimos. When he returned with news of his enormous loss, a loss that involved the death of Novak, he had gotten more than just a simple lecture.

Once Deimos was done yelling at him, Arius had given him his idea for making things right. Even though Deimos liked the idea, he still spent several days torturing him before letting him go. He was lucky he had gotten another reprieve. There were rumors throughout the galaxy that Deimos was looking at replacing him.

Now was not the time to worry about that though. Now he was back in Earth's orbit and ready to do some damage. He turned toward Shax and smiled. It was time to put his plan into motion. "Once I arrive in the park, meet me there with a group of Keresecks. I want to do this swiftly. No giving the rangers time to plan, no room for error."

"Yes sir." Shax replied. He was in charge now. He had healed from the injuries that he had received at the hands of Kaycea's homemade bomb. He considered himself lucky. Novak did not walk away at all. Of course, that was not necessarily a bad thing. With Arius not interested in replacing Novak, he got an automatic promotion to head of Arius's army.

"Do not disappoint." Arius said, and seconds later he teleported himself out.

His destination was easy to find, as was his target. She held a simple schedule, and during the daytime hours appeared in very few places. As he expected, she was in the one spot she spent most of her time. "Hello." He greeted with a grin as he appeared several feet in front of her.

The woman stood, surprised, and backed up as though she was going to do something. He could not afford her sneaking out, so he moved quickly to grab hold of her. In a flash, the two of them were gone.

When they reappeared, they were in the park, a homemade force field surrounding them. Shax and his Keresecks were not far behind; however, there was no sign of the rangers. "Rangers, if you continue to hide something bad will happen." He called out after several minutes passed, knowing they were listening. They were trying to plan a rescue; he had no doubt in his mind. "You have five seconds. One. Two. Three. Four."

Before he could say five, seven multicolored streaks flew down in front of him. "Let her go." Kim said her voice full of fury as she stared at Arius and Trini. They were trying to figure out a way to get Trini back. Billy was panicking, his logical mind not quite functioning right to create a solid answer. As a Muirantian, she knew she was the only other one in the group with a shot at figuring this out and she had the power within herself to do it. However, Arius was not giving them time to waste so they had to make an appearance.

"I have every intention of letting her go." Arius said with a grin. "But first you must hand over William so that he can share with me his expertise." He would have gone after the scientist directly, but the lab he worked at had an unusually complex security system for this world. He would have been notified of his presence before he could get anywhere near him.

"No." Trini shouted from her position behind the small force field. She loved her husband and she did not want to die. She wanted to live, to be a mother. She knew she could not be selfish though. The world needed Billy more than it did her. He helped the rangers protect the planet. She refused to let him give himself up, risking her world and countless others in the process.

"Not gonna happen." Kim replied. She was angry with herself. She should have seen this coming. He failed going after the Nova's scientists. In his eyes, Billy must be the next best thing. She glanced briefly at the rest of her team. They were antsy, especially Jason who had known Trini just as long as she had. However, they were all waiting for her commands. She wanted to try to weaken his force field, try to give her a chance to get in and get to Trini.

"You don't think I'm serious do you?" he asked. Of course they didn't. Trini was his only leverage against William Cranston. Why would he harm that? In most scenarios, that was the truth. However here, if he did not get what he wanted quickly, they would not have any intention on giving it to him. They would try to rescue her, and if they succeeded, it would only be another failure on him.

He could not fail again. He had to show something, anything that was a success. If that meant killing their friend, so be it. It was a small-scale success; however, Kaycea would get the message. He was going to get what he originally came to this pathetic planet for, if he had to go through anyone and everyone she ever cared about to get it.

As the rangers simply stood strong and glared at him, he sighed. He had to show them he was serious. He glanced at the woman beside him. He could tell something about her immediately, and he was going to use that to his advantage. He held up his hand, and spoke a few words in a foreign tongue. Seconds later, his hand started to glow and he put it up against her midsection.

Trini struggled but she had nowhere to go. She felt his power, felt it attaching to her. She felt it crawling inside of her, pulling at her. Then the cramping started, cramping that developed into burning intense pain. She cried out as it grew worse. She knew what he was doing, what he was destroying. It only lasted seconds, but it was long enough. She knew it when her legs gave out from under her and her knees hit the ground. Her baby was gone.

"One down rangers and if you don't produce William right now you'll lose her too." Arius said as he yanked her hair, forcing her head back.

The rangers looked on in disbelief. He could not have done this. Not to Trini. Billy had to be heartbroken, enough to turn himself in. They could not let that happen though, if they gave him to Arius they would be exchanging one life for another. Arius was powerful, it would not be hard to extract information from Billy, and then he would kill him.

"Now." Kim spoke quickly, her mind made up. She was going in there to get Trini out.

The atmosphere in the park shifted as the rangers who could, accessed the elements at their disposal and threw everything they had at Arius as Kim teleported herself to him with lightning speed. He was confused at first, but he quickly realized what was going on as she exerted all the power she had at her disposal to try to push through the force field as the rangers were hitting it.

Arius locked eyes with her through her helmet. He would applaud them for this attempt. His little force field would not hold up long and the Muirantian would easily penetrate it. However, it was going to hold up long enough. "Wrong answer." He said as he took the knife from his belt and slid the blade across the girl's throat.

He barely noticed Trini's reaction. Instead, he focused on Kaycea, on the sense of urgency she was portraying. He saw the tips of her fingers push through. It would not be long now before she was in. It did not matter though the deed was done. Humans were fragile, and if the right arteries got destroyed, they would be dead in a matter of seconds.

He heard hear gasping for her last breaths of air as the red ranger started to push all the way through. Satisfied with what he had accomplished here today, he allowed the force field to drop as he teleported away.

Kim stumbled into the space Arius once occupied, not even noticing the fight that was breaking out around her with the rest of the team. She fell to her knees beside Trini's curled up body. "Trini?" she said in a whisper. There was no answer, and if the quick check of her pulse did not give her away her lifeless eyes did.

She put her arms around her and pulled her close. This was not fair. She was supposed to protect their friends and family. Otherwise, what was the point of saving the world and saving herself? She had failed her friends; she had lost Trini, who had been one of her closest friends growing up.

She barely acknowledged the blue Ninjetti as he teleported in, weeping. He pulled his wife's body out of her arms and brought it into his chest. Kimberly stood, overwhelmed with grief as the blue Ninjetti teleported away.

The tears fell from behind her helmet as she stumbled a few steps back. She failed them, failed Trini. She had to figure out how to make this right. But how? A thought occurred to her. She had the power. Could she do it? Would they let her do it?

She did not know if they would let her, but she certainly could. What was the worst that could happen? They would take her life in exchange for Trini's or they would put the world back to this moment, ensuring nothing changed. If that was the case, she had nothing to lose. If it was the former… well she'd gladly give her life so that Trini could have hers back, could have the chance to raise her family with Billy.

Mind made up, Kim disappeared in a flash of red. She arrived in the Command Chamber shortly after she and Carri left it earlier in the day. She hopefully had enough time to come up with a plan and execute it. Trini's life depended on it.

* * *

Arius looked at Shax as he assured him he would take care of his duty in the park. "Do not disappoint." He said before teleporting himself out.

His destination was easy to find, as was his target. She held a simple schedule, and during the daytime hours appeared in very few places. As he expected, she was in the one spot she spent most of her time. "Hello." He greeted with a grin as he appeared several feet in front of her.

The woman stood, surprised, and backed up as though she was going to do something. He could not afford her sneaking out, so he moved quickly to grab hold of her. He did not get far before he was stopped. There was some sort of force field, some sort of trap. The woman he was after teleported away in a flash of white light.

Seconds later a flash of red appeared before him. "Kaycea." He greeted the red ranger, not hiding his irritation. He should have known she was behind this.

"Hello Arius." She said, trying to hide her excitement. She was not completely sure this would work. If he ran off with Trini, it was going to be back to the drawing board for her.

"You were expecting me?" he asked as he raised an eyebrow and looked at her curiously. He had not let his plan leak, and she was out here relatively quickly for this being on a whim.

"I had my suspicions after the incident with the Novas." She replied. At least she would have if she had really thought about it.

Arius looked at her carefully. He should have known she would consider all the possibilities. He had not expected her to come up with a way to trap him. He was certain he would pay for his inability to predict her moves later. "You know you can't protect your friends forever." He finally spoke.

"I can try." Kim said, with more confidence than she felt. She was not completely sure this method would protect everyone, that she could figure out how to get it to protect everyone. It was complex at best, and she was not sure that it was going to be completely feasible.

However, it did not matter if she thought that her plan was working. She needed him to believe it is. She needed him to know she was serious. "Consider my friends the cheese in my mousetrap. You or your goons come near them; you're going to find yourself stuck in my always changing web." It was something she created from a technique she had seen elsewhere in the galaxy. It was difficult to pull together for her own purposes.

"So you're simply going to trap me here, not letting me out and not letting you in?" Arius said. It did not really seem like it was the best solution for her, more like a messy fix. "I'll find my way out eventually."

"I have no doubts that you will. This is not meant to be permanent. It's meant to give your target a chance to escape, and to alert the other rangers of your presence." If she could get this system up and running, the minute he got trapped he'd have rangers on his tail. "Once the rangers arrive, you will know that you have lost again."

Arius frowned. There was no denying that she had a point there. He was not going to be able to get through to Kaycea though without getting to her friends. He was powerful; he could find a way around this little trap of hers. For now though, he would have to accept this loss and go back to the drawing board, assuming Deimos will let him continue. "You win Kaycea."

"I know." She said simply. Using a little bit of magic, she released the hold her force field had on Arius. "Now leave here." She spoke with authority. She hoped he would listen. She did not want to fight in an office building, to risk the lives of all these innocent people.

Arius thought briefly about fighting, however he was not in the mood to deal with any more of her little tricks. "This isn't over." He said as he teleported himself out.

Once he was gone, she let out a sigh of relief as she leaned against Trini's desk. For the most part, she was making empty threats. She may be able to repeat the device, put it in homes of the people who were the biggest targets. She had allowed him to believe it was attached to Trini, but that was not the case at all. She had placed the device in Trini's office moments before Arius arrived, telling her friend that she was fooling with security measures just in case.

It worked here because she knew exactly where Arius was going to be right now. He could leave here and go after her mother, her brother, former rangers, and retrieve them easily. She did not know if she could figure out how to make her device follow a person around. Arius did not know what it was, and did not know that it could not do what she said. She did know he was going to work to figure out a way around it.

For now though, she had won. Trini was alive and well. Her baby was alive and well. They would be allowed to continue with the rest of their lives. Meanwhile the rest of the team would carry on, this incident being nothing more than a blip in the day. She would brush it off as her experimenting with safety precautions, and they would believe her, feeling fortunate that Kim did what she did before Arius appeared.

She would be the only one who carried the memory of Trini's death. She would be the only one who knew what Arius would do, what he had no problem doing. She understood him a bit better, understood that he was tired of losing and that he would move quickly to get results, even if they were not what he was originally after.

She hoped things would stand like this that her correction to her timeline will be allowed to continue. She hoped that she will be allowed to live on to continue to battle Arius. She had no idea how long the DG would take to respond, if they would respond at all. She sighed as she glanced briefly toward the ceiling. There was no time to dwell on that now. Enough time had passed that she was past the moment she was in before she left.

She wasn't completely sure how it worked yet, how the time line shifted to allow for the correct progression to take place, to allow for her to assume the role she held in it. She knew that the timeline had a way of snapping itself back into place. She also knew what that meant for her, that she needed to get back to work before anyone noticed her disappearance.

First, she would have to stop in the Command Chamber to briefly talk to Trini and the others, and fill everyone in with her fabricated story. Then it was back to work for a few more hours before she could put this bad day behind her.

* * *

Carri sat in her living room in the early evening hours, watching as Jason downed the rest of his second beer. It was not long after Kim's little meeting that they'd met. Carri had taken off early from work. She had gotten a lot done and had more than put in her hours for the day. She was tired and ready to go home.

They started talking about Kim's little traps, and wondering what else, she was doing that she had not told them about. Not only were they left in the dark, but it had become obvious that Tommy was clueless as well. Once they both concluded that they could not quite put a finger on what was up with that, they moved on.

The topic shifted to Mr. Collins, and then to Emily, then once Jason decided Carri seemed relaxed, he shifted to a topic she was not fond of. "You know my book is coming out soon."

"Oh?" Carri questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Am I going to have to kill you now or shall I wait for later?"

"It's not as bad as you make it out to be." Jason quickly spoke up in defense of his book. Truthfully, it was just as bad as she made it out to be. He had plenty of amazing information from the past year that he had put into it. She probably was going to kill him for the cover alone. It featured his female hero along with her best friend and sidekick, both wearing the skimpiest battle outfits and both resembling Kim and Carri. Of course, there was more to the cover than that, but they were front and center.

"Please." Carri said with a snort. She had not forgotten last year's book. Despite her resolution to never tell him anything again, she knew both she and Kim probably gave him enough information to keep his book going for another year.

"I'm sure they'll be a movie in it for you so what's the big deal." Jason said, grinning slyly at her.

"The deal is." Carri stopped short when there was a knock on her door. She jumped up and went to answer it. Standing on her front step was the silver ranger. "Tommy, hey." she greeted, hoping he had not come by her house to harass her about Luke Kirk.

"Hey." Tommy replied, giving her a slight smile. He had something to talk to her about. It was kind of an odd conversation, but Hayley had convinced him to have it. "I was hoping we could talk."

"Sure." Carri said as she opened the door and gestured for him to come in.

Tommy entered the house and saw Jason sitting on the couch. They quickly greeted each other then he started to think of ways to get rid of him. It was bad enough he was giving Carri a heads up, if he told Jason all bets were off.

"So what's up?" Carri asked as she collapsed back into her seat on the couch.

"Actually I was hoping we could talk in private." Tommy said. Jason was not going to be pleased with that, but at the moment he didn't care.

Jason glanced briefly from Tommy to Carri. He wondered what it was about. Part of him was inclined to put his foot down. He did not want him to grill her about Luke Kirk again. However if he stayed, that would be suspicious. "I need to go anyway." Jason said as he stood. "I have dinner with Emily soon."

That was not a lie, although he could have stayed longer. Instead, the black ranger went and tossed his empty bottle away before heading toward the front door. Tommy watched him leave before he took a seat on the couch next to Carri. "So here's the deal." Tommy said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box, popping it open to reveal a good-sized diamond ring.

"Aw Tommy you shouldn't have." Carri said sarcastically as she leaned down to inspect it. She knew exactly what it was; at least she thought she did.

"So what do you think?" Tommy asked, snapping the box shut and shoving it back into his pocket.

Carri could not help but snort. "Since when did you care about my opinion?" She had giving him her opinion on situations before. Of course, half the time it was not because he had asked, it was simply because she saw the situation and she was giving it. When he did ask, they usually disagreed over the answer.

"I don't." Tommy replied. She stared at him crossly and he grinned. Their opinions had wildly differed over the years and while they could agree sometimes, it had gotten to the point where he preferred not to ask.

He honestly did not care about her opinion here. He did not want to say anything to her, he was afraid she would blab before he got his chance to propose. However, Hayley was insistent that he talk to her. She said that it was a girl thing that he would not understand, but that he had to make sure that she was ok with him proposing this close to her wedding.

Women were fixated about their big day and were all about the spotlight being on them and them alone. He assured her that was not Carri, but Hayley said it did not matter what he thought she was, with weddings all bets were off. She had seen friendships strained over this. If Tommy proposed, and Kim walked around with the rock on her finger, the attention she would get as people fawned over it at Carri's wedding would put a strain in their friendship.

Hiding the ring would not work either. Someone within the ranger community would inevitably find out and that meant Carri would find out. Then she would know her best friend was hiding this from her, which would also strain their relationship.

His only way out was to ask her if she was ok with it. He scoffed at Hayley, and thought about the fact that he did not care if he pissed her off. He wanted to propose to his girlfriend on their anniversary and he did not care about what her best friend thought. That is when he realized this was Kim's best friend, and he did not want Kim to get crushed if the two of them got into a fight. He loved her too much to let her go through stress and tears over that.

"So then why ask?" Carri questioned saucily, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"I want to make sure you're not going to get mad at Kim if I propose this close to your wedding." Tommy replied honestly. He was trying to keep a mess from happening.

"Why would I get mad?" Carri questioned, genuinely confused. She had known ever since their summer trip to Florida before their freshman year in college that these two would end up getting married. With all they had been through, she was thrilled for her friend that it was looking like that was going to happen.

"Because we have the same circle of friends, and our engagement would mean people would be focused on us, not you, on your wedding day." He said with a sigh as he offered up Hayley's explanation.

The white ranger stared at him blankly for a moment before bursting into a fit of laughter. Once she finally calmed down, she replied. "We've known each other for years. You should know that this is so far out of my element I'd pay you to shift the attention off of me." She still wanted her private, rangers only ceremony at the courthouse. However, that was not going to happen. Like it or not, it was going to be a giant, overhyped, event.

"That's what I said." Tommy replied gruffly. He should have just listened to his gut. "Hayley convinced me otherwise."

"I've never even met Hayley." Carri was quick to point out. "If she knew me, she'd know that the traditional wedding scene isn't really my thing." She knew that best friends had come to blows over stuff like this, but that was not her, and she was honestly going to be happy for Kim once he proposed.

"Good." Tommy replied, somewhat regretting his decision to come here as he stood. "I trust you won't say anything to Kim?" That was what he was most worried about. He knew the girls hardly had any secrets between each other.

"Of course not." She said as she stood as well.

"Jason either." Tommy added. As worried as he was that she would spill the secret, he would be even more so about Jason.

"Fine." Carri said with a sigh. "But you owe me one." She said as she pointed a finger at him. She hoped he would do this soon. She would not intentionally tell either of them, but it was not going to be easy. This was huge.

"Fine." Tommy said with a smile. Owing her one could be a bad thing in the future, but he would take it for now. "Thank you."

Carri nodded before leaning in and giving him a hug. "Congratulations."

Tommy returned the hug before stepping back and looking at her. "She hasn't said yes yet." He pointed out.

"She will." Carri assured him with a smile.

She and Tommy exchanged goodbyes before he left to get dinner. Once he was gone, Carri slid back into the couch and turned the TV on. She was debating whether she wanted to get a second beer when the door leading into the garage opened up and her fiancé walked in. "Hey baby." She called out to him.

Rocky said nothing in response, simply walked into the living room. She looked up at him curiously. He was usually one to come in and greet her with a kiss. Instead, he looked angry as he sat in the recliner, purposely staying away from her. "We need to talk."

"No good ever comes from those words." Carri said. Her tone was teasing, but she was taking him quite seriously. He had never been this cold toward her.

He looked down at the envelope in his hands. "This," he said pausing before tossing it in her direction, "isn't right." He finished. He was not going to sugarcoat it. He was upset and she needed to know that the way she was going about things was wrong.

The envelope landed next to the white ranger with a thud. She picked it up and looked at the front. She saw his name in the center, and off to the side was the name of the law firm her parents employed. She cringed inwardly. Whatever this was, it was not good.

"I'll be honest; I don't understand why you felt this was necessary." Rocky said as she opened up the envelope and looked through the papers. "However, if you wanted to do this it's fine. But you should have talked to me about it first. That is what a relationship is about. Not me getting blindsided by your lawyers in my office." This was hard and he was hurt. The more he thought about it that afternoon the angrier he got. He thought they loved each other. You did not go behind the back of someone you loved like this.

Carri was feeling somewhat confused as she started reading what was inside. It was from her, even though she had not asked them to do anything. As she flipped a few more pages, she realized what it was. Letting out a frustrated grunt, she tossed the papers across the couch. "Dammit." She muttered to herself.

"What?" Rocky questioned, starting to feel quite confused himself now. "This isn't what you expected? You didn't think it would go down like this?"

She turned toward him and shot him a venomous look. "We've been together for how many years and you honestly think I would do this to you?" she asked. If the answer was yes, she might have to slap him.

"No but what am I supposed to think?" Rocky replied. They were from her lawyers, with her name all over them.

Glancing briefly toward the stack of papers, she grabbed one of the bottom sheets and held it up. "See. No signature. If I'd had the papers drafted I would have signed them first." The law firm worked for her family and both hers and her father's companies. They had the authority to put her name on legal documents for her to sign. Of course, she would have had to tell them to do so, but she knew of one person who could convince them to do it for her.

Rocky nodded. He had wondered about that briefly himself, but had ultimately ignored it. "This was done in your name though. Law firms don't do these kinds of things randomly." He pointed out, his voice softening somewhat.

"It's my law firm." She confirmed. It would be his too, eventually, assuming he ever had legal needs. "Or at least my family and my business are their clients. I can authorize them to do things for me. This works well for business purposes, like when your ex tries to sue me. I did not authorize this though. My guess is my mom talked them into drawing the papers up."

"Your mom wants me to sign a prenup?" Rocky asked, this whole thing suddenly making sense and he could not help but feel a little bit guilty at immediately thinking the worst of his fiancé.

"Yeah. She called a few weeks ago." Carri replied with a sigh. She was hoping her mother forgot about it. She had not heard anything more about it. Sadly, she could not be that lucky. "She told me she wanted me to make you sign one. I said no, she pushed; I let her think I gave in so she would leave me alone. Apparently she took matters into her own hands."

"So she had them draw up the papers and hand-deliver them to me." Rocky said as he thought aloud.

"I would never ask you to do that." She said as she gestured to the messy pile of papers. "We'll toss these and I'll call my mom and tell her what I think about her prenup."

Rocky stood and went to squeeze into the empty spot next to Carri on the couch. "Don't do that." He said as he put an arm around her. She looked at him curiously and he continued. "Look, your mom wants me to sign the agreement. It doesn't matter to us if it is signed, right?"

"It doesn't." She said turning and locking her eyes with his. "That's not the point though. The point is that my mom is pushing this on you because she doesn't trust you. I do."

"I know you don't care what your mom thinks." He said. He did, he wanted Carri's mom to think better of him. She thought he was ok for a college fling, but now she looks down on him and he wants to change that. If signing her prenuptial agreement would help, he would do it. "If I sign this, she'll know I love you, not your money. Then you'd have some leverage when you argue with your mom."

Her lips curled up into a smile. When she tells her mother she loves him and her mom rolls her eyes in response, she can point out that he signed her stupid agreement. "Ok. We'll sign it." She said. She still did not think it was necessary, but he wanted to do it for her mother.

Rocky has put up with her and her family for years. Where a lot of guys would run the other way, he stuck firmly by her side. How she got so lucky, she didn't know. As he leaned across her to grab the papers, she put a hand on his waist, firmly stopping him. He looked at her curiously for a moment, and then she leaned up and pressed her lips against his. He was surprised at first, and then he leaned into her and returned the kiss. They separated briefly and he moved back into a seated position, pulling her into his lap as he did so. Putting his hands around her he pulled his fiancé close, kissing her again as he moved his hands up her back, the prenuptial agreement temporarily forgotten.

* * *

It was later that evening when Kim pulled into the driveway of her new home. They had gotten everything in a little over a week ago. There was still stuff in boxes, but it was starting to feel like home. She loved their house and all the renovations they made to it. She even liked the basement command center Tommy was working slowly on putting together. This was a place she could see them living in for a long time.

With a smile, she cut the engine off and climbed out of the car, heading for the door. It did not take her long to get it unlocked and head inside. She wondered briefly where Tommy was, before letting that thought pass as she headed straight for their couch and collapsed into it.

Her mind started wandering to where it had been the last few hours. She tried to push Trini's death and the DG aside while she was working but she could not. She still had no idea whether or not the DG was going to retaliate for her actions. Several hours had passed, and while she was beginning to think that maybe she was off the hook, she could not be certain.

She had not completely thought things through when she rushed off to save Trini. Sure, she would give her life for her friend's, but there was more to it than that. She had not thought about what would happen with their campaign with Arius. If she was no longer here, she doubted he would simply give up. She firmly believed he would continue to go after her friends and family. She feared what would happen to her team without it having all of its powers, without it having its red ranger.

If they were to survive, she worried about what would happen to Tommy. Would he be able to move on, able to lead some sort of normal life? Would he find someone else and stay involved with the rangers? Or would he blame the DG for her punishment and go after them? The thought that he would not accept her death and that he would go after a force more powerful than he knew frightened her.

Laying her head back against the couch, she tried to forget about those thoughts. She closed her eyes and forced them aside. Just as she was starting to pack them away, they smacked back into the forefront of her mind as a vaguely familiar noise rang out through her house.

Her eyes flew open, her mind already processing where she heard the noise before she could catch up to it. She stood as she realized what was going on. "Thomas." She greeted the man who had appeared in her living room. This was it then, the DG had found out about what happened here today.

He looked her over. She did not seem surprised to see him there. It had been months since they last met, and there was no reason for him to pay her a visit, which meant she had been worried all afternoon that someone was watching her. "It's been a while."

"It has." Kim agreed. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe this was simply a coincidence. Maybe he was just here to tell her the DG was ready for her. She had made the decision to change Trini's fate, she would not go back on it, and she would face the consequences. However, she was not ready to give up hope that was not what this was about.

"I see you've been busy." Thomas said, figuring he would start the conversation this way. He checked in on her often. He knew she had been progressing at a fast pace. Today proved that it was getting close to time to officially bring her into the fold.

"We've been fighting against Arius. He keeps us fairly busy." Kim replied giving him what she hoped was an everything is ok smile.

"I've noticed." Thomas replied. This was not the only time he had seen a fight against Arius. With Kim's powers, she was providing quite the challenge. She was not going to give up, to give in to Arius's demands, even on days like today when he managed a victory. "He killed Trini."

"Yes." Kim said, sucking in a deep breath. He knew. This could not be good.

"So then you don't deny she was dead, or that you changed the timeline to save her?" Thomas questioned. This was the real reason for the visit. She needed to be made aware of what she had done, made aware of how lucky she was and that she could not do it again.

"No I don't." Kim said. She could not deny it there was no point. "I am willing to accept whatever consequences I may have to face."

Thomas nodded, somewhat expecting her to say that. She reminded him of K. Which meant that he needed to get it in her head quickly that not only did she need to obey the DG when they came calling, but that she needed to obey the rules at all times. "By doing that you have broken several continuum rules."

"I assumed so." Kim replied. Nobody had explicitly laid out the rules for her. She supposed the DG would, if they were going to allow her to live long enough to work for them. "Trini is my friend. I couldn't just let her die."

"I realize you have no official experience with the DG but you do seem to have a good idea of what you should and shouldn't do. Trini being your friend does not excuse your behavior." He lectured her. She knew not to be openly defiant, but that was not the only thing that can get her into trouble. Breaking rules, especially by a Muirantian with her power, was not going to be tolerated.

"It wasn't an excuse." Kim said simply. She was not trying to excuse her behavior. She knew the potential consequences when she went back in time. Most of them anyway. "Whether or not it was the best course of action, I did it, and I will allow the DG to punish me accordingly."

"Consider yourself lucky." Thomas spoke harshly. "I only know what happened because I was watching. The DG wasn't paying close attention, and your stunt wasn't even a blip on the radar." Trini's life did not matter in the grand scheme of things. The world was not going to shift to blue or green simply because of Trini's death. It was those kind of shift's that got the DG's attention.

Where it mattered was small enough scale that they would never notice the difference unless they were looking closely. With Trini dead, a devastated Billy would have eventually slipped into a deep depression, stepping back from the team. At that point, Kat Manx stepped in and assumed Billy's duties, coming up with things for the rangers that would have been comparable to what Billy was to create. Trini lives and Billy goes on to create those things, while Kat simply works for him. Either way Dr. Manx goes on to be in charge of all the ranger technology for SPD. That was of course, assuming things went as they were currently going and this conflict with Arius did not end with another Kemora on their hands.

"So I'm not going to be punished?" Kim asked, the relief evident in her voice.

"No, not this time. However, you cannot do this again, no matter what the circumstances. Your life has farther reaching consequences than you realize." Thomas said. With her early death, this world would be sacrificed to the forces of evil looking to take it over.

"I know." Kim said softly. She had been thinking about that all afternoon. It was more than just her life for Trini's.

"Your powers are developing quickly, the DG are going to want to speak with you soon." Thomas said, hoping she would remember to accept their terms and follow their rules once she was called for. "I have been working hard to keep you off their radar for the time being, but stunts like this don't help." As he finished speaking, he heard a car door slam shut.

"I'm sorry." Kim replied, not sure what else to say. She appreciated what he was doing for her and she did not mean to make things difficult. She still was not sure she could trust him, but he was going to cover for her here, and to her that said a lot.

"Just remember, if you do not want your actions to lead to your friends and family to meeting a horrible end, you will stay in line." Thomas said. It was not a specific threat from the DG, but it was the ugly truth.

Before Kim could respond, her front door opened and pulled her attention away from the conversation. She turned back to Thomas, but he was gone. With a sigh, she glanced toward the man that was entering the house. "Hey." She said as she walked over to greet him.

"Hey." He replied, leaning in to give her a kiss. He shut the door and held up the plastic bag in his hand. "I got food."

"Chinese." She said simply as she remembered. He was going to order takeout for them on the way home. With all that had been going on that afternoon, she had forgotten. "You're the best." She said, giving him another kiss.

"And don't you forget it." Tommy replied with a smile as he turned toward the kitchen. "Let's get this dished out before it gets cold."

"Sounds good." Kim replied, watching as he walked off. There was so much going on, so much to worry about, so much she could not tell anyone, including Tommy about. She was lucky that she was still here, that the DG had not noticed her breaking rules, changing her timeline to fit her needs. Even though it was a small change, she knew she should not have done it. It was Trini though, and she had the ability, she could not let her die.

For the moment, she had gotten away with it, and all was right with the world. The DG would come for her soon, to make her one of their employees, but she was not going to worry about that tonight. Tonight it was time to eat Chinese food in the house she shared with her boyfriend. Feeling as good about the moment as she could, she put on a smile and walked into the kitchen.


	10. Battle Royal

**Dislcaimer:** The Power Rangers belong to Saban. Thomas, the DG, K and any mention of all things related to her world belong to KSuzie. Everyone else is mine.

Dark Inheritance  
"Battle Royal"

It was almost four in the morning and the rangers were exhausted. They had been fighting for nearly an hour at this point. It was all against the Keresecks. Just when they defeated a group of them, another group was there to take its place.

The attacks had been like that since lunchtime the day before. So far, they had only seen the Keresecks, but that was likely to change at any point. They had had two long battles during the day, one during dinner, and this marked their third since the sun set. The rangers were exhausted. Most of the team had not slept a wink all night. Even when they were at home, they were all lying in bed, worried about what it was Arius was plotting.

Although worried, one of the rangers was trying her best to try and get some sleep. Carri was supposed to be getting on a plane at six am that would take her and Rocky to New York. It was a business trip. Her dad had called the week before asking her to fly out and go over some things about the upcoming Luke Kirk movie. She did not really want to go, but she agreed, and much to her surprise Rocky volunteered to go with her.

She thought about asking him to stay, she never liked putting him in the path of her mother. Then she realized this would be a good opportunity for the two of them to hand deliver the prenup back to her mother that had been sitting, signed, on her desk for the last two weeks. She intended to make a statement with it.

Since her father's private jet was busy, she booked two first class tickets out to New York leaving as early as she could get them. She had not planned to spend the night before wrapped up in battle. Yet here she was. It was almost time for them to leave for the airport, and she still had to finish packing. She had just gotten up to her phone alarm when her communicator went off. This had disaster written all over it.

With a flick of her wrist, she disabled the Kereseck in front of her with her lance before turning and kicking another one in the stomach. She swirled around and was back to back with the black ranger. "You know you fight better when you're tired and grumpy." Jason said. He had watched her tear them apart. She was fighting fiercely. She probably just wanted it to be over with so she could get back to bed.

She glanced over at him and rolled her eyes from behind her helmet. "Careful." She warned. "I've heard there are random lightning strikes this time of night." She was in no mood to get picked on by anyone right now.

"Right." Jason said, getting her meaning as he turned and maneuvered out of her way. He found himself next to the pink ranger and continued the fight.

The battle continued going strong for another ten minutes, then finally the last of the Keresecks were destroyed. The rangers stayed put, waiting to see if another wave would be headed their way. After a few minutes of silence, they were convinced this was over.

"Alright guys." Kim said as the group of rangers convened in the center of the battlefield. "Looks like the fights over for now. Go home and try and get some rest."

"Rest?" Carri repeated with a snort. She was out of time to rest. She was out of time to pack. She was going to be late to the airport and she was exhausted. "I can't rest. I have a plane to catch. Unless…" Her eyes lit up from behind her helmet. "The reason why I'm so far behind on packing is directly ranger related. I am pushing it to get to the flight on time. Maybe Rocky and I could just teleport to the airport when our flight is supposed to land. That way I have time to finish packing and can try to get some rest." She thought it was a pretty good idea and she was fairly certain Kim would give in.

The red ranger was thoughtful for a moment. She made a good point. It was not as if Carri put herself behind. She was usually responsible about those kinds of things. It was her secret identity as a ranger that got in the way. Kim sometimes bent time to take care of those things. It was only fair to let her friend teleport this once.

Before she could answer, Tommy spoke up. "Absolutely not." He said firmly. That was a dumb idea if he ever heard one.

"What do you mean absolutely not?" Carri said, her temper rising. She was tired and punchy, and she really expected them to give permission to proceed.

"How are you going to explain you suddenly appearing in the airport if you get noticed?" Tommy questioned. He saw her arm rise, he knew she was going to go off on that but he continued before she could get a word in. "And what if someone caught you teleporting? You would expose us all. Do you really want that?" He had been really strict about morphing and teleporting ever since his Dino Thunder team got caught. They got lucky. He doubted if someone caught Carri, they would be so kind as to give the evidence back.

"I'm not stupid Tommy." She said with a huff. "We'll be careful. Nobody will ever know what happened."

"I think I made myself perfectly clear with absolutely not. My mind isn't changing." He said taking a step toward her and crossing his arms over his chest.

Carri glared at him but did not say anything. Instead, she turned toward Kim. "Well I figure since you're the red it's your call to make. So can I teleport?"

Kim resisted the urge to groan. Leave it to Carri to push Tommy's buttons like that. Despite the fact that he was not in the red spandex now, he is still looked at by most of the other teams as the senior red. Carri was one of the few rangers to try and challenge him, but she was fairly certain if Tommy really pushed her she'd back off.

"I am not stepping into that." Kim said as she threw her hands up in the air. "I may be the red on this team, but this is a broader issue and I'm going to leave it up to Tommy." She was not going to take anyone's side.

Tommy smiled to himself. For a minute, he thought she actually might side with Carri. He would have been fumed. Issues like this she should back him up. He heard the growl that came from the white ranger but before she could say anything, Rocky intervened.

"Come on babe let's just get back so we can get ready to go." He said as he pushed her gently backwards. He liked the teleport idea too, but he was not going to argue with Tommy over his decision.

"Fine." She said through clinched teeth. "We'll just teleport home – if that's still allowed – and hopefully we don't miss our flight."

Jason chuckled as the blue and white streaks disappeared from the battlefield. Tommy glanced over at him, his arms still firmly crossed. "Something funny?" he asked, not quite seeing the humor in the situation.

"Nope. Not at all." He said before teleporting himself out as well.

Jen glanced toward Zhane who shrugged as if to answer a question. They were both fairly new to working with this group of rangers. As far as Jen knew, they were excellent in battle and got the job done. There was nothing in the books about the drama though. She always found it interesting. She glanced toward the others as she brought her communicator up. "See you guys later I'm sure." She said as a pink streak flew out.

"I'm heading out too." Zhane said. He had a girlfriend waiting in bed for him. She had just gotten back from running an errand with her brother and he hated spending her first night back fighting. She understood, she thought it was a decent attack strategy and told him just not to wake her when he went in and out. So far so good, now he just had to slip back into bed.

Kim watched as the last of the rangers' teleported away. She walked over toward her boyfriend, whose arms were loosening against his chest. "Come on," she started as she wedged her hand between his arm and his side, "let's go home." With that, the two final rangers' teleported off leaving the once busy battlefield quiet.

* * *

Several hours later, the blue and white rangers were sitting on a flight that was reaching cruising altitude. Carri at this point was beyond agitated and they were barely into their five-hour flight. This was shaping up to be one of the worst flights ever and she was blaming it all on Tommy. If the black ranger had let her use the teleportation system, she would be at home trying to recoup from the latest fight, passing the time until she had to teleport to New York.

It started out with the two of them being extremely late to check in. Late enough that they almost didn't make the flight. It was after four when they got home from the battle. Then it was a rush to get ready and finish packing everything. It was over an hour later when they left not giving them much time to get there before takeoff. Of course, because they were so late, there were consequences. They made their flight, but the airline had assumed they were not coming and had given away their first class seats to another passenger. That left them with the two seats in coach.

Rocky managed to keep Carri from going off on the woman behind the desk, although it was hard considering how tired and pissed off she already was. He got her on the plane and she took the seat in the middle, hoping it meant she would be left alone. Of course, the woman sitting next to her had other plans.

She was apparently feeling quite chatty that morning. She struck up a conversation with Carri, and despite the fact that the white ranger did not say much in response other than a polite hello, she continued running her mouth. She finally stopped talking after a conversation about where they were from. Carri simply told her she was a local, from Angel Grove, without elaborating on her trip to New York. The woman then proceeded to launch into detail about being from New York and working as an assistant for an interior designer, and how she was in California to spend some time on a movie set that her boss had done some designs for.

She was waiting for Carri to ooh and ahh and then ask her for gobs of details. Of course, she did not know Carri, and did not know that, as the owner of Ausus Productions hearing about a movie set did not faze her. When she did not get the desired reaction, she turned with a huff back toward the window. Grateful for the silence, Carri plugged headphones into the jack and focused on the tiny TV in front her. At least until the girl sitting in the seat in front of her started bouncing back and forth without stopping. She complained to the girl's parents, who could not or would not restrain their daughter.

She tried to close her eyes when the woman next to her threw her arm practically in Carri's lap before dropping all her newspapers on her feet and spilling bottled water on her pants. At that moment, the flight attendant stopped by and she grabbed him and begged to change seats, at which point he told her the plane was full. She argued and volunteered to pay someone to switch, but he simply laughed at her and walked off. Rocky immediately shifted and blocked her from trying to reach out and strangle the man.

He knew that with the fights from the night before and the bad start getting here that this five-hour flight was not going to be easy. Nevertheless, if she kept this up, he was tempted to beg someone to switch with him. He loved Carri more than anything, and he respected her temper as part of her personality, but when she was tired and angry she was a hard person to be around. He looked over and sighed as the flight attendant from earlier was back to get them drinks.

The woman from New York ordered a cup of coffee. When she was done, the man turned toward Carri. The white ranger thought for a moment. There was only one way she was going to make it through this flight without killing someone and that was with alcohol. "I'll have a glass of merlot."

The flight attendant stared at her blankly. "Mam, you do realize it's merely seven am." He said, trying his hardest to be nice to the woman who was quickly turning out to be difficult.

She cocked her head and smiled at him. "Well that would make it ten in New York which means mother already has a head start on me." The real answer was that she had been up fighting Keresecks practically all night and at this point, she had no real concept of time. She did know it certainly was not morning. When he did nothing but stare at her, she continued. "What, can you not serve wine?"

He sighed and glanced upward, rolling his eyes. "Yes we can serve it. It will be six dollars; I'll get your card when I come back."

"Six dollars?" Carri repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes we don't give away free wine on planes." He said with a snort. This was going to be a long flight.

"Maybe not in coach. However, I am a first class passenger. I paid for first class tickets. It's not my fault you booted me to coach then refused to credit me the price difference." She replied, her temper starting to rise. She scooted forward in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest, as if daring the man to challenge that.

"Well you're sitting in coach which means its six dollars." He replied, doing his best to continue smiling at her. She looked like she wanted to punch him. He hoped she did. He would have the air marshal on her in a half second.

Rocky saw her unbuckle her seatbelt and he reached his hand out and put it firmly on her leg. "Babe, it's just six dollars. Don't make a scene over it."

She shot him a look that could make senior rangers take a step back. "That's not the point."

"I know. But he can't do it and you're not helping." He said. Before she could continue to argue, he turned toward the flight attendant and spoke. "I'll have a coke, and I'll take care of the wine." He said.

She slammed back into her chair and glared at him. "We shouldn't be paying for it in the first place. If they couldn't give me my first class seats that I rightfully paid for they should at least give me the wine free that goes with them. And if." She stopped short as she caught something out of the corner of her eye. Before she had time to react, a strand of cheese wiz that had been accidentally shot from the girl in front of her flew backward and landed on her face, before dripping down onto her shirt and pants. "What the hell!" she exclaimed loudly enough that several of the passengers turned toward her.

She let out a grunt and turned sharply toward Rocky. He knew that look well. She got that look before she destroyed something. She jumped out of her seat and started to step over him. "I'm going to go clean up." She hissed. She marched toward the front of the plane, pausing briefly to yank the can of cheese wiz out of the laughing little girl's hands. The parents were too mortified by their daughter covering a passenger with cheese to protest, and she marched the can up toward the front bathrooms and threw it away, going inside to clean herself up.

When she returned she found Rocky holding a coke in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. She looked at him and took the glass of wine, chugging it before she even sat back down. Stepping over him once more, she slid into her seat and put her seatbelt back on. She put her headphones on and turned toward her fiancé. "I'm going to try and take a nap before I have to kill someone."

Not waiting for his response, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She let the sounds of the TV drown out the annoyances of the airplane. Just when she thought she might be able to get some sleep in, their communicators chirped. "Son of a…." her voice trailed off as she tossed the headphones to the floor.

Rocky glanced over at her and sighed as he unbuckled his seatbelt. Before they could move, the flight attendant was standing over them. "Mam you do realize that cell phones are not allowed on this flight, right?" He was starting to wonder if it was possible to tie her to a chair, far away from him, for the next three and a half hours.

She rolled her eyes as she reached down into the small bag at her feet. She pulled out her Blackberry and held it up, shoving it toward his face while pressing buttons. "See. Off." She said before tossing it back to the floor.

"Good." He snapped, rolling his eyes back at her before turning and walking away.

He got three rows down before their communicators chirped again. He shot her a look and she shrugged. "It's not us." She assured him as she started to push Rocky out of his seat.

The blue ranger stood and moved back so that his fiancé could get out as well. They both glanced toward the front and the back of the plane. Since the cheese wiz incident a few moments ago, the bathrooms got suddenly crowded. With a sigh, Carri marched toward the front, which was the less crowded of the two, as Rocky followed behind her.

There were five people in line in front of them that they had to let into the restroom first before they could answer their page. This was not helping the white ranger's morning, who was agitated again now that saving the world was put on hold because some people could not use the bathroom fast enough. Their communicators beeped again and Carri let out a frustrated growl.

Trying to be as inconspicuous as she could, she pulled her arms up toward her chest and hit the button on the communicator. "It sucks that we have to wait this long on our shitty airplane flight to use the restroom." She hissed loudly before letting her hand drop. Hopefully Billy would get the point.

Someone bumped into her and she looked down to see a little boy standing there. "Ooooh you said a bad word." He said before giggling and running off. She turned to follow him, only to find several other children running around the aisles with him.

"Great. Because this day couldn't get any worse." She grumbled.

Rocky stepped up from behind her and put his arms around her. "It's ok babe." He assured her. "The others will be fine for a few minutes without us. We will take care of this problem, come back, and be in New York soon. The rest of the flight can't be this bad."

"If you say so." She replied, not entirely convinced. She crossed her arms over her chest as she inched slowly toward the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, Rocky removed his arms from his fiancé, as it was finally her turn to enter one of the small airplane restrooms. He heard the door lock, and seconds later he saw the faint white light come out from under the door. He was the only one who knew why the plane shifted slightly when her teleportation beam jetted out. At least one of them was on the way to the fight. Hopefully it would be his turn to go soon.

* * *

Seconds later the white ranger arrived on the battlefield, where she found the remaining members of her team getting hit hard by not only Keresecks, but a monster as well. She sighed as the silver ranger came flying backwards in her direction. Of course they would be late to the fight that actually involves a monster.

Tommy stood up and turned in her direction. "Where have you been? We could have gotten killed out here. When your communicator goes off you respond. Immediately."

"Are you serious?" Carri said, not quite sure what to say in response to the silver ranger. "The only reason I was late was because I was in the middle of the worst plane ride ever – that I wouldn't have even been on if a certain ranger with a stick up his ass would have let me teleport."

Tommy grunted in response as he ran back to the fight. He did not have time to get into this right now. He had forgotten about the flight, but she was still late and they were still getting their butts kicked.

She watched as he went up to engage the monster in battle. The rest of the team was facing Keresecks, and a few of them were heading her way. She barely noticed Rocky teleporting in as she ran straight for the Keresecks, trying to disable them as quickly as possible. She worked furiously to make it through her pile. She had her eye on the monster battle and she wanted to get there quickly.

The Keresecks in front of her were destroyed within minutes, and there were no more immediately heading her way. She jogged over toward the monster battle, where Tommy and the creature feature were locked up tightly. Wasting no time, she sent a bolt of lightning through the sky. It missed the monster, hitting the silver ranger dead on who flew backward.

Tommy stood up and glanced back at her. "Sorry." She called out lamely. This day from hell was his fault and he would not take responsibility for it. As Tommy turned back toward the monster, another bolt of lightning flew from the sky, landing close enough to him to get his attention.

This time he knew it was intentional and he turned and immediately went to confront the white ranger. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I've had a bad day. My aim seems to be a bit off." She said as she crossed her arms and glared at him from behind her helmet.

"Do you think this is funny? This is a serious fight here. There isn't any time to fool around." Tommy said. This was worse than when he had to work with teenagers. They showed more respect for the battle as newbies than she was showing as a senior ranger.

"Nothing about this is funny to me." Carri snapped. And it wasn't, not in the least. She was beyond angry at this point. Nothing had been funny since the minute she stepped in that airport.

Tommy pulled his arm up and pointed at her, standing up straight as his muscles tensed. "Then grow up and act like the veteran ranger you are as opposed to acting like a child." If his tone did not give away how ticked off he was, he hoped his postured did.

Under normal circumstances, Carri would not continue to push Tommy when he was this pissed off. She knew she would lose. This time, she was so pissed herself she did not care. She threw her hands up in the air. "You think I'm acting like a child," she said as she turned to point at him this time, "well let me tell you something Tommy…."

"Guys!" Kim exclaimed stepping in between them and pushing them apart from each other. "What the hell are you doing? We have a battle to fight here!" She had seen them start to go off on each other. At the time, she was still covered in Keresecks. Fortunately, Jen and Jason had made it past their Keresecks and were able to take on the monster while the other two argued.

"I think our white ranger is confused about which team she's on." Tommy said as he glared at her from behind his helmet.

Carri snorted. "I know which team I'm on. I was just trying to hit the monster with lighting when he moved. That's it."

"That's bullshit and we both know it." Tommy said with a growl.

"Stop it!" Kim said, silently thanking the power that Carri was on her way to New York and the two of them could cool off after this. "As this team's leader I am ordering you to fight the monster, not each other." Whether or not that would work with these two, she did not know, but she had to try it.

Carri huffed but she pushed past the silver ranger and headed toward the monster. She needed to beat the crap out of something, this would do. Tommy sighed and looked toward Kim who threw her arms in the air. "I'll find out what's going on later. For now, let's just finish this."

Jason watched as the remaining three rangers finally joined the battle. Rocky had been pissed, and he could tell Jen and Zhane thought the whole thing was odd, but he found it quite amusing. This would make the perfect side story for his next novel. The heroines best friend and her lover at odds. How does it turn out? He would have to wait and see.

Before he could follow that thought through anymore, Kim called the team back. "Are you afraid of me?" the monster called out.

"Nope. We're just going to blow you to smithereens." Kim said as she called on the Planetary Cannon. In an instant, it fell into the rangers hands, and from her starting position behind the device, Kim called for it to fire.

The monster in front of them easily went down. They waited a few seconds, but instead of the monster growing, they were treated to another wave of Keresecks. They spent a good fifteen minutes finishing them off, and as soon as things were clear the blue and white rangers teleported back to their plane before the other passengers got agitated more than they assumed they already were. The other rangers, deciding that the fight was over and that there was not much more they could do here, teleported back to their homes so that they could get ready for their days to begin.

* * *

Shax stood on the bridge of the command ship, watching as Xinas stormed off in agitation. He was angry that his plan did not work, and that he would have to go back to the drawing board. Shax knew it was not going to. He had intended on hitting them with Kereseck battles all afternoon and all night, in the hopes of wearing them down so that the alien they sent down easily defeated them.

There was no doubt in his mind that Kaycea was too strong to falter to that plan. Arius would have known that. He would never attempt such a poor idea. However, Arius was not here yet. He had gone to report their latest failure and Deimos had demanded to see him. It was not long after that Xinas showed up.

If Arius was considered Deimos's number one general, Xinas would be right behind him. He was a good militaristic style leader, but Shax knew that was not going to win this battle and get Kaycea to return with them. Arius had resources that Xinas did not. He was smart, cunning, and powerful. There was a reason he was first in line and a reason he was leading this mission in the first place.

For all he knew, Arius was dead by this point. Deimos had been threatening him if the failures continued. Usually when Arius left to report to their leader, he got left in charge. Never had they sent someone else to take over the day-to-day operations. It would be unfortunate if Deimos killed Arius. He liked him, liked working for him.

Xinas on the other had he did not care for. He was a good soldier, a loyal soldier, and he would follow orders, but that still did not mean he would like the other leader. He did not like the way he led and he did not agree with his decisions. For now though, Xinas was in charge. He knew this campaign was not going to go anywhere anytime soon, but he would stand back and do what was necessary.

He hoped to hear some good news back from Arius soon. That their leader was returning and that it was going to be time to come up with some real strategies, something that would work. Until that point he was stuck up here, watching Kaycea win battle after battle as Xinas proves he is not the soldier for the job.

* * *

Kim stood in the Command Chamber as she and Billy went to get started on working with the coins again. She had gotten back there later than she had intended, spending a good bit of her morning trying to calm Tommy down.

She promised him she would find the underlying cause of whatever was up with Carri. She was inclined to think that her friend had been right about teleporting. She did not say those exact words to Tommy though. She just indicated that she suspected that Carri was upset because the practically hourly fights were still going on and she was stuck on a plane and had to risk exposure to get away.

While she assumed that was part of it, she knew Carri and knew she was pissed enough that there was more to the story than that. Tommy did not completely buy into the fact that was the entire story either, but at least he stopped to think about it.

She did not agree with Carri's methods on the field, and she made Tommy promise to let her handle it. After all, she was the red on this team and Carri's behavior was her problem. He reluctantly agreed, but she was not completely sure that he would not say something to Carri. At least he would let her go first. If Tommy tried, the two would most likely start arguing again. God forbid it ended in an actual fight. Tommy was stronger by far, but that did not mean Carri would not simply cheat and use her abilities to throw him across the room.

With a sigh, she tried to turn her focus back to the coins. Before she got started, Billy spoke. "Something wrong?" he questioned. He had seen the look of frustration when she teleported in, and the sigh now just confirmed that everything was not exactly well.

She let out a small snort. "You saw the battle earlier. Smoothing things out between Tommy and Carri isn't going to be easy." She said, shaking her head. "But I'm not going to worry about that right now. Now we have to get this rolling and see if we can get the coins back online."

"Hopefully we can make good progress before lunch." Billy commented. He watched as Kim glanced up and looked over at him and he continued. "Trini's feeling much better; I wanted to take her out."

"The morning sickness finally going away?" Kim questioned. She knew Trini had been having good days and bad days. The bad days, apparently, had been really bad. Even with all the technology they had access to; sometimes the things Mother Nature did to a woman during pregnancy could not be stopped.

"It's starting to look that way." Billy replied with a smile. It was nice to see his wife starting to feel better. Her morning sickness had lasted outside the range of what was usually normal for pregnant women. He hoped it would subside soon. He could not bear the thought of her sick every day between now and the baby's birth. "We have our fingers crossed."

"Don't worry about what we're doing here. Take off for lunch." Kim said as she smiled. Where fixing the grid was concerned, she was just as capable of doing some of the things that needed to get done as he was. She was even better at some things thanks to her Muirantian abilities.

Besides, she really wanted Billy to be able to take off and have a good time with his wife. They deserved it, and she wanted them to have the time together. She could not tell him that though. He would not understand. She did not want him to understand. To understand meant that someone else would carry the burden of what happened that day on the battlefield.

It was hard enough for her to have that knowledge. She had nightmares about what happened. She dreamt about Trini dying, about her holding her lifeless body in her arms. She would wake up in cold sweats. If she was lucky, she could slip out on her own, go somewhere quiet to think, bending time to return once her mind was clear. Other nights she woke Tommy up. He was concerned about the nightmares, but she always lied about them, blaming them on things like her trip to the Muirantian pit.

It did not matter in the end that she saved Trini. The nightmares still floated to the surface, haunting her. Perhaps they were a constant reminder of what she did, of the consequences of what she did. The consequences were not as bad as she was afraid they would be. She was afraid that she was going to be killed at the hands of the DG, and that her world would be sacrificed to Arius and her friends and family would die as well.

Just because she avoided the worst case scenario did not mean there were not consequences. The DG may not have noticed what happened, what she did to save Trini, but Thomas certainly did. Like it or not, she flagged him down with her actions. He was not going to report her to the DG, but she had a feeling he would bring her before them soon.

She was trying to avoid her first meeting with the DG, but the more she used her powers, the more she knew that was not possible. Thomas was going to come back for her and thrust her in front of them. There she will be told what her role in their world was going to be, and she will have no choice but to say yes. Otherwise, they will have no problem killing her.

Dying at the hands of the DG was not the way she wanted to go. She wanted to live; she wanted to stay on Earth with her friends, with Tommy, even if they were going to all age and die well before she did. Of course that meant she had to follow all of their rules, which was not as easy as it sounded. Sometimes rules had to be bent or broken for things to be accomplished, for former rangers' lives to be saved. It was a difficult situation to getthrust in the middle of. She knew she would have to try. It was the only way to keep her friends safe.

Before she could think any more on the subject, Billy motioned for her to come toward him. "Check this out." He said, pointing to the newest data set as Kim approached.

She glanced down at it, taking a moment to interpret it. "Is that… does that mean what I think it does?" she asked, excitement in her voice for the first time in the months they have been working on the project.

"It looks like the grids have calmed down." Billy confirmed. He knew since the last time Kim tried to get the older grid to recognize the coins, she had gone out there and done some manual work with them. They were finicky, and he was not sure that they would ever let her ease them into the right direction. Now they were showing signs that they were conforming back to their original position. There was a chance they would recognize the coins now. If the grid would accept the coins, they could tinker with it until it started to repair itself.

"If Ninjor's right, it will recognize my coin." Kim said as she walked over toward the small device she had used with Carri before. During her coin making sessions, she had talked to the coin master at length about the old girds, and about getting them in the direction of repairing themselves. He told her not to give up on them, he told her how to continue to work with them. He also told her that once they started to give a little, they would be willing to recognize the great power flowing through the coins.

She made a few adjustments on the machine before sticking her coin in and letting the machine take over from there. She watched patiently as the machine ran her experiment. Several minutes later, a bright pink light filled the room, causing Billy and Kim to shield their eyes. The light died down, and they both looked at the coin in the machine.

"That's a first." Billy said as he thought about what this meant. Any other time they had tried, this experiment ended with a small explosion.

"I think it recognized it." Kim said, her excitement showing through. She reached in and grabbed her coin, and she could feel the power around it, feel the grid that it talked to. "I think the grid is ready to work with us and get the repairs going."

"There's only one way to find out." Billy said as he went to the console and started to work. If Kim was right, if the grid was ready, they'd have a second set of rangers for the bad guys to contend with. He hoped she was. It would certainly be helpful to have a backup around. He briefly glanced at Kim, who was in the process of teleporting off to check on the grid, before turning back toward his console and starting to work.

* * *

That afternoon, Jason found himself walking with Emily through the outdoor shopping mall. They had eaten lunch at a café nearby, and he thought it might be fun to take a stroll. Besides, he had something to show her.

Emily looked over at him and smiled. She was glad he has not been called away again today. She had stayed at his place the previous night. She was fairly certain he was off fighting more than he was sleeping all night. She slept through most of it, only waking when his communicator chirped. When he got called off after seven this morning, she got up and went home to change.

He had been disappointed to come home and find her missing, but she figured at the rate he was going, he would be gone all day and would not notice. He had been fairly certain that he was done fighting, as the battle plan had changed and they defeated the monster that was sent to destroy them. So far, it seemed as though he had been right.

She had seen the monster they fought; it had headlined the morning news along with the other fights from the rest of the night. She had even seen the rangers fighting each other. At first, she was afraid someone had gone rogue, but Jason assured her it was just Carri and Tommy butting heads. That she could believe. The two have been friends for years, but she had seen them clash on more than one occasion.

She was afraid of saying anything to him about possibly being able to enjoy their afternoon together. She did not want to jinx it. Years of dating a ranger taught her that when all was going well, keep your mouth shut. You never knew when things were going to change.

For now, she would simply enjoy walking with her boyfriend through the mall, pretending they were a normal couple. They were not really shopping, other than her occasionally peering at something in a window, but that was fine with her. She was just enjoying the company.

Jason glanced down at the woman on his arm. He was happy to be here with her. He was happy to be with her period, which was something he never thought he would hear himself say. She cheated on him all those years ago and he forgave her. It was more than just forgiving her; he had fallen for her again like he did when they were kids.

Kim and Carri had accepted the idea. They did not hang out with Emily like they used to, but they were fine spending time with her during group gatherings. He did not know if they would ever truly be friends again. He hoped one day they would, but only time would tell. At least they were happy for him. They were happy that he found someone, and that things appeared to be going well. They were happy that he did not have to hide the rangers from his girlfriend, and that this time around she seemed more accepting of the rangers as part of who he was.

He was lucky. Kim and Carri dated rangers; they always had someone they could share every aspect of their lives with. He spent years hiding who he was with women until Emily came along again. It was such a relief to be able to be himself with a woman and not have to make up excuses for things. Even when he was not an active ranger he was trying to keep up with the rangers and most women found that odd.

His thoughts faded back to the moment as they approached the bookstore. He put his arm around Emily's waist and turned her, guiding her in. She glanced up at him as they headed through the front door. "What are we doing in here?" she asked.

"I wanted to show you something." He said as he walked her forward. It was not hard to find what he was looking for. He stopped in front of a mostly empty display at the front of the store.

Emily stopped to look at the giant Luke Kirk display, featuring the newest book in his hit series. "I didn't know the book was out." She knew it was soon, she had heard about the book and the good reviews it was already getting on the news, but she did not know it was today.

"It came out this morning." He said with a grin as she reached down and picked up the last copy the store had. He was not surprised. The preorder numbers had been through the roof. His publisher was counting on the first batch flying off the shelves by the day's end. They hoped to have the next set of books delivered to stores within the week.

She held the cover up and studied it for a moment, grinning as she realized whom the two central figures were meant to resemble. "Do they know about this?" she asked as she looked briefly at design around the two sexily dressed space heroines.

"Not yet. I'm sure they'll find out soon enough." Jason said with a chuckle. He could not show them the cover; they would tackle him and make him not release the book. Then, when he would not oblige, they would never let him hear the end of it. He told them that they had nothing to worry about with this book. He only lied a little. They would get over it; after all, it is all but guaranteed to be the next Ausus Productions movie, putting money in both Carri and Kim's pockets.

"They're going to kill you." Emily said with a grin as she put the book back down on the table.

"Maybe." Jason said, pausing as someone squealed from behind him. He turned as a girl who looked to be about sixteen said something along the lines of you let go and it's mine, before grabbing the book and running toward the check out.

Jason chuckled as he put his arms around his girlfriend. "Don't worry." He whispered into her ear. "I've got a signed copy for you at home."

She turned into him and brought his head down toward her. "I like this dating an author thing." She whispered back. "I don't have to worry about getting my copy of the hottest book series on the planet."

He leaned back and watched as she grinned at him, before leaning back toward her and planting a kiss on her lips. "Come on." He said as he pulled back and grabbed her hand. "Let's get out of here." With that, he pulled his girlfriend out of the bookstore and back into the gorgeous May day in Angel Grove.

* * *

Late that afternoon, Kim sat in Tommy's jeep as they rode up toward his parent's beach house. It was their anniversary this weekend, and they had decided to spend a nice quiet weekend in the place where they first got back together this last time, the place where as a young girl Kim had one of the most romantic weekends of her life.

She hoped it was going to be quiet. After all the fighting they had done in the past twenty-four hours, she was not so sure. There had been no noise from Arius and his crew since this morning, and she was not sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.

She supposed that at the very least it gave them a chance to relax and get some work done. She and Billy spent a few hours tinkering with the grids. She hoped they were pushing them toward finishing the repairs themselves, but only time would tell. She would probably end up slipping out to check on them a few times before the weekend was over. Fortunately, she could cheat and manipulate time so that she would not miss any with Tommy.

The silver ranger had gotten some work done that day as well. The hours she had spent working with Billy, he spent working on his basement command center. She was glad that their house was mostly secluded from others because he had done a lot of work and made a ton of noise. She had to give him credit though; things were coming together quite nicely.

Kim glanced out at the road, and realized they were getting close. There was something that needed to be discussed and she wanted to do it before they got there. No matter what Tommy said, she could tell he was still upset when she referenced the morning battle. He needed to know what was going on and that she handled the situation.

"I talked to Carri a little while ago." Kim said casually to start the conversation.

"And?" Tommy questioned. He was hoping the answer was that she let her have it but he doubted it. They had made the local news and God only knows what other news sources.

"And she blames you for not letting her teleport to New York. They lost their seats, the flight was hell, and then they both spent thirty minutes locked in the bathroom. Apparently, when they came out, the air marshal was waiting for them. He checked them and checked the bathrooms to make sure they were not doing drugs or something worse in there. With no proof they let them go but…" Kim's voice trailed off as she shrugged her shoulders. She felt bad. Carri would have to get over the bad flight. However, she had not even thought about the fact that they might get called into battle, again, while she was on the flight. The way things were going; she should have stepped in and suggested maybe Carri and Rocky teleport.

"That doesn't excuse her behavior." Tommy said sternly, skipping over the part where had Carri and Rocky been arrested, that would have been a nightmare. What could have been worse would be if they got caught morphing and teleporting.

"I lectured her about that." Kim assured him. "She says she's sorry, and she assured me it won't happen again." Those were not her exact words. Her exact words were something like, "look after what Tommy got us into, he totally deserved it, but I promise I won't try to kill your boyfriend with lightning during a fight again". Which Kim interpreted as if we are not fighting, game on. It was all right though; she would take it for now. Besides, she knew Carri usually took fights quite seriously and she doubted she would get that pissed off to go after Tommy in the middle of one again.

"Fine." Tommy said as the beach house came into view. He did not believe that is what she said or that was the end of it. He knew Carri too well. For now though, he was going to let it go. He was going to spend tonight and tomorrow here with Kim and he did not want to be thinking about the white ranger.

Kim was somewhat surprised that Tommy took that at face value and did not ask any more questions. He believed either everything was good or he did not want to discuss it further. She was inclined to believe the latter. However, if he was going to act like everything was all good, she'd keep her mouth shut and leave it be for now.

They pulled into the driveway of the beach property and climbed out of the car. Tommy grabbed their overnight bags and headed for the door, Kim right behind him. He unlocked it and set the bags to the side, gesturing for Kim to come in.

She entered and immediately noticed the rose petals in the hallway. "Tommy." She said the surprise evident in her voice.

"Maybe you should follow them." He said with a sly grin.

Kim let out a small laugh as she started to walk the trail Tommy laid out. Anytime they had been there, he had made sure it was a time she would never forget. This visit did not look like it was going to be any different.

The rose petals led to the dining room, where on the table sat two lit candles, a bottle of Champaign on ice, and a plate full of chocolate covered strawberries. Kim looked at the set up for a minute. It was obvious that the candles had been burning for a while, probably lit within the last few hours. The ice was starting to melt a little bit, but it was still in decent shape. She knew Tommy had actually done work this morning in his command center. This meant there was only one way he could have gotten over here to do all this and gotten back.

Kim held back a laugh as the situation was not lost on her. The whole reason for today's fight between rangers, the reason for the bad moods of both Carri and Tommy, was that he would not allow her to use the teleportation system to get herself to New York. Yet the only way he set all this up was by using the teleportation system himself for non-ranger purposes. Granted there was less of a chance of him being caught, but it was the same thing.

Tommy walked over and grabbed the two Champaign glasses. "You want a strawberry?" he asked as he gestured toward the plate.

She walked over and looked at the stack. It reminded her of their first trip to the beach house when she was in college. He had brought her chocolate covered strawberries as a surprise treat. She thought he spoiled her then. She knew he was spoiling her now. She studied the display for a moment. The only way to get a strawberry without toppling them all over was to pick the one off the top.

Reaching over, she grabbed the piece of upside down fruit and pulled it off the stack. She was surprised when she noticed the green leafy top of the strawberry with a ribbon tied tightly around it. Ignoring the strawberry for the moment, she grabbed a hold of the ribbon and pulled it from the center of the pile until it revealed a piece of jewelry tied to the end of it.

"Tommy." She said with a gasp as she looked at the diamond ring. Was this what she thought it was?

"You and I have been through a lot over the years. We've been rangers, friends, lovers… we've fought and made up… we certainly don't always see eye to eye where the team is concerned." Tommy said with a little chuckle. They argued as reds, they argued when he was concerned about her Muirantian powers, among other things. "The one thing that has been certain in all this, no matter who or what has tried to separate us is that we love each other. That is never going to change. We have certainly given it the opportunity to, yet every time we end up coming back to each other. Looking into the future, you're the only one I've ever seen myself with, and I think you feel the same way."

Tommy paused as he dropped to one knee in front of his girlfriend. "Marry me." He said simply.

The red ranger froze for a moment. She was not really expecting this. She supposed she should have, she always knew they would be together forever, at some point they would have to make it official. After everything they had been through though, sometimes she just was not sure he would still want her forever. Yet here he was, down on one knee, asking her to marry him.

Kim smiled briefly at him. "Yes." She replied as she reached down to pull the diamond ring off the end of the ribbon.

He stood and took the ring from her hand, slipping it on her finger himself. She glanced down at it briefly, but before she could get a good look at it, Tommy leaned in and planted his lips on hers. She was startled at first, and then she leaned into him and kissed him back. It was fiery and passionate as her lips pressed against his. The strawberry fell from her hands and onto the floor as she put her arms around his waist and pulled him into her.

The moment grew more intense as everything on the table got ignored. Tommy put his arms around Kim's waist and lifted her up. As he did, her arms instinctively moved to his neck while her legs attacked themselves to his waist. He walked her over and laid her down on the couch, where the duo could not keep their hands off of each other. For a little while, all their troubles were forgotten as focused all their energy on each other.

* * *

Early the next morning, East Coast time, the white ranger found herself sitting in her father's office along with her father and her brother. She was in a decent mood that day. There were no more battles since the morning before, and Tommy had not called to ream her for her actions. Plus she had gotten to spend a nice night in the city with her fiancé, which was a bonus.

Now it was time to focus on work, the whole reason for the trip. That and to throw her prenuptial agreement back at her mom, which she had done quite gleefully the afternoon before. Her mother was a bit shocked with the return of the agreement and her daughters instance that it was no big deal since they were in love and money did not matter. Although she figured the martini she drowned afterwards helped her get over the shock a bit.

Before she could dwell on that too much, her father started to speak. "We've got a lot of work to do today." Jonathan said as he glanced at his two children. "But before we start, I have something here that needs to be addressed." He said, reaching for the tabloid that had been brought to him this morning.

The one thing he asked of his children was to behave and not be front and center in the tabloids. Josh had a hard time following that rule, but Carri was usually good about it. This, however, was not good. He opened to the page in question and turned the tabloid around so that his daughter could see it.

Josh could not help but laugh at his sister as the two of them leaned over to glance at the title. "Diva Daughter on Plane". As if the plane ride was not bad enough, now she was paying for it with the media. She picked up the paper and glanced at the picture of her and Rocky. She looked like she was about to explode as she walked through the airport to go hunt down her bags. The story itself came in the form of an interview with her favorite flight attendant. Lovely. How exactly could she explain this one away? The answer was she could not. She would have to let the people think she was really this crazy bitch. It was a lot easier than them knowing about her being a ranger.

With a grunt, she turned the page, only to be greeted by a picture of the white and silver rangers fighting during yesterday's battle. "Shit." She swore under her breath. Tommy was going to kill her. It did not matter if Kim convinced him yesterday that she would take care of it. That was before they were in the tabloids, where the world was now debating whether or not the team was as good as their predecessors, and liked each other enough to save the world.

Josh glanced over at the paper to see what on the following page caught his sister's attention. He grinned at the picture. "Looks like that white ranger's being quite a bitch." He said to irk her. He knew the fights had started again, knew his sister was wearing white this time instead of yellow.

"Maybe it's the silver ranger who was being an asshole." She quickly pointed out as she shot her brother a look. She glanced back down at the tabloid before deciding she could not look at the article any more. She turned the page again, this time to find herself faced with an article on the new Luke Kirk book that was released yesterday. She made a face. She had not been aware of the book's release. She glanced briefly at the synopsis before looking at the book's cover art. At first she was a bit shocked. If this was Jason's idea of not that bad, she'd hate to see what bad was. She was going to have to kill the black ranger.

She let out a grunt as the image sunk in. She leaned her head back in the chair and glanced at the ceiling, briefly wondering if Arius could come down now and put her out of her misery. Her father was going to kill her. If he did not, Tommy most certainly would. That was never going to give her the chance to kill Jason. She wondered briefly if Kim had seen it yet, then realized there was no way she had, otherwise she have heard by now. She would have to send a picture to the red ranger later.

Josh reached over and ripped the paper out of his sister's hands. "The new Luke Kirk book?" he questioned as he looked at it. "You should be stoked. This means another multi-million dollar movie for you."

"Oh I'm stoked." Carri said dryly as she looked up. "It just caught me by surprise, that's all."

Josh opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, his father interrupted. "I don't care about the other articles; I care about the one involving you. So what do you have to say for yourself?"

Carri opened her mouth to speak, and then she paused. What could she say for herself? It was not as if she could tell her dad the truth. She sighed as she realized the only reply she could give. "Guilty."

"This is unacceptable behavior. It is not good for your image or for this family for you to go on a plane and throw a temper tantrum. You have to act like a responsible, normal adult." He lectured his daughter. "What in the world got into you?"

"Just a bad night that translated into a bad morning." She said with a sigh. That is the best explanation she can give. "I'm sorry about my actions on the plane. It won't happen again, I promise." Next time she was simply going to ignore Tommy's orders and teleport. It would have saved her a lot of trouble.

"It had better not." Her father replied as he sat up straight and gave his daughter a stern look. He was satisfied she felt bad about the incident, and he decided to move on. Besides, he did not want to waste his entire day on this. "Now let's get some work done." He said, moving on to the reason his daughter flew to New York in the first place.

* * *

It was a little later in the day when Kim found herself teleporting to the Command Chamber. Tommy was still asleep, and she was hoping he would stay that way for a while. She felt guilty leaving him, but she felt even worse that she had not come back here all night.

She was supposed to be responsible for the grids, making sure they were doing what they were meant to do. Yet she had not left Tommy's side, even though she knew she could bend time and come right back. Last night was… well it was magical and she did not want to go anywhere.

It was not just the sex. It was the romance, the love, the midnight session feeding each other strawberries on the beach while drinking Champaign… she could not have thought of anything that would have been more perfect. The most romantic weekend of her life was there, they got back together at that house, and so far, this had been a time to top both of those. Even when she was hundreds of years old, when her friends were long gone, she would never forget this forget him. She loved him with all her heart, and now she was going to marry him.

She let out a slight sigh of pure happiness without even realizing it. "Did you have a good night last night?" Billy questioned, not missing her good mood.

"Huh?" Kim asked, forgetting that Billy was supposed to be there. "Yes, you could say that." She said as she recognized the question. Taking a deep breath in, she reigned in her emotions so she could get back to the task at hand. "So have you looked at the grids this morning?"

"I think they are starting to repair themselves." Billy said as she walked over toward him. "There's one way to know for certain, and that's for you to try and morph."

"You think they are repaired enough to sustain a morph?" Kim asked, her eyes growing wide. If they could sustain a morph that would mean they were close to ready for use.

"If they are on the right track, they will allow you to morph, but only for a very brief period of time." Billy paused for a second before continuing. "It will only work with your coin. It has already recognized your coin, and I'm not sure that it will recognize the others until the repairs are finished."

"Alright." Kim said as she reached into her back pocket and put her fingers around her gold coin. She pulled it out slowly. It was now or never. If this worked, they would have a chance at restoring their old powers. If it did not… well then it was probably back to the drawing board.

She glanced briefly at Billy, who nodded. "I'm going to monitor the grids while you morph, see what happens. Feel free to try when you're ready."

She put her hand behind her back in a too familiar stance. "It's morphin time!" she called out as she went through the motions, thrusting her coin and morpher forward as she yelled, "Pink ranger power!"

The familiar uniform of the pink ranger washed over Kim's body. She was reunited with her old powers, reunited with the old grid. She did not need Billy to tell her that, she could feel in flowing through her Muirantian veins. It was barely a good thirty seconds before the uniform started to disappear. Once it faded away, she turned toward Billy. "Well?" she questioned, waiting for him to confirm her suspicions.

"The ancient grid morphed you." Billy said with a smile. "It wasn't ready yet, and I think it backtracked a bit when you morphed, but as soon as the suit started fading away it went back to repairing itself. I think we did it. We'll have to keep an eye on it, see if we need to help it more, but I think all of Cratus's damage will be reversed and you will all be able to morph with the coins again."

Kim nodded. This was fantastic news. Once it was ready, she would bring the old team together; let them try it. If they could all morph, if the grid held up properly, they would have a backup team waiting in the wings. It would be a nice little surprise for Arius. He would not know what was coming to him.

They may never have a need to use their old powers, but still Kim felt confident knowing they were there. They stood up against Callisto and Rhianna, they would stand up against Arius if need be. Their team could just add this to their bag of tricks. Kim smiled to herself as she thought about it. Things were going her way now. Arius could bring it.


	11. Truth and Lies

**Disclaimer:** The Power Rangers and all show related properties belong to Saban. Elemi and the Novas belong to KSuzie. Everyone else belongs to me.

Dark Inheritance  
"Truth and Lies"

It had been another month of continuous failures for Xinas and his army. This last attempt at destroying the rangers, Kaycea had epically defeated him to the point that Deimos had called him back for a personal chat about the situation.

This left Shax in charge. Although, he was not allowed to actually do anything as far as leading battles went. He did not mind, he would rather he be in charge and do nothing than to leave Xinas there. Arius had not had any true successes, but he had come a lot closer than Xinas ever had.

He thought, especially given the last month and a half, that Arius deserved to be the one here leading this campaign. He was not sure if Arius was ever coming back though. He did not even know if their former leader was still alive, there had been no word from Deimos one way or the other. Either way, he hoped he would not send Xinas back. There were a number of other members of this army that were better suited to the job. He could do it better if given the chance. He had seen Arius and Kaycea interact. He might not be as powerful as Arius is, but he knew her strengths and weaknesses and sometimes that could be enough.

He glanced briefly at the commander's chair on the ship's bridge. He thought for a moment. He was technically in charge, was there any harm in going to sit in it? He supposed there was not, and he walked over and took his seat as the head of the ship.

As he started to make himself comfortable, two figures materialized in front of him. He started to evacuate the chair, but then he realized who the two figures were. "How did you get on this ship?" he asked with a hiss. As far as he knew, neither one of them was employed by Deimos.

Jakar simply laughed in response. When the other creature gave him a cold stare, he spoke. "You should consider tightening your security a bit." He said as he looked Shax over. He recognized him from a brief meeting on another world. He was a good fighter; however, there was no way he was in charge. "Who is running this ship?"

"Me. For now." Shax replied. He was not about to let him in on the details of what was going on here. He knew all about the intergalactic tyrant standing in front of him. He did not want him to think he could overstep his bounds. "What do you want?"

"We've come to offer our assistance." Jakar said as he gestured toward Fessus, the only minion that he trusted enough to bring out on a mission like this.

"I can assure you that we don't need your help." Shax replied. The last thing they needed right now was Jakar running around trying to help. There was no question that Jakar had his own agenda, one that probably did not agree with Deimos's.

"Oh but you do. You see, I have heard about your attempts to sway Kaycea. She and I have fought before; I can help you get her." Jakar assured him. By get her, he meant he was going to go down to the surface and destroy her. He did not want her roaming free anymore. By all accounts, her powers had grown exponentially since the last time he saw her. She needed to be destroyed now before she became the thorn in his side he feared she would.

Not only was his goal here to destroy Kaycea, but it was to keep Deimos from getting his greedy little hands on her. It was no secret that Deimos wanted the throne that was vacated years ago by Dark Specter. He happened to like the anarchy that replaced Dark Specter's alliance of evil. He did not want that brought back together, he did not want to have to serve Deimos. Without the Muirantian, Deimos did not stand a chance at the throne. He was here to help make that happen.

"I don't think that will be necessary." Shax replied. He did not know what Jakar wanted with Kaycea. He could want to kill her, or take her for himself. Either way he was not going to allow that to happen on his watch. "Besides, wherever you go, the Nova's tend to follow, and we don't want any dealings with them right now."

"The Nova's are occupied for the moment." Jakar assured him. Last time he tried to come to Earth, the Nova Rangers had not been that far behind him. If it were not for Elemi, he would have succeeded in destroying the red Planetary Ranger. This time he made sure the Nova's were distracted and were not paying him a bit of attention. It had taken a good-sized distraction on his part but the Nova's were out of the way for now.

"Even if that's so, we still don't need the help. I appreciate the offer and"

Before he could finish, Jakar moved the ten steps in between them with speed greater than someone his size should have. He snatched Shax up by the throat and lifted him off his seat and in the air. "I was trying to be polite but I see that I will have to put another way. Either you assist me or I destroy you and use your resources to help anyway. I am going to be a part of this no matter what you do."

There was an obvious fury in Shax eyes. He did not allow anyone to treat him this way. Even with his failures, Arius and Deimos had been kinder. Now though, he did not have much of a choice. Jakar could take him out without thinking about it. He needed to stay alive long enough to figure out how to fix this situation and keep Deimos's plans on track. "I apologize." He spat out as Jakar loosened the grip on his throat and put his feet on the floor. "Our army would love to benefit from your assistance."

"That's what I thought." Jakar said as he let him go. "Now let me share with you how we are going to take care of your little problem." He knew how to keep the other rangers busy. Meanwhile he would take the red ranger on himself, seeing to the destruction of the one enemy who was becoming much too powerful for her own good.

* * *

Tommy found himself hiding behind the bushes on the outside of a major Hollywood studio. Production on the Luke Kirk movie had started at the beginning of the week. Luke Kirk had been firmly at the front of his thoughts, especially with all the hype surrounding last month's book release. It was on every TV show and magazine he came across. Now, with the local producer starting filming on the movie that correlated with the first book, he could not do anything without hearing the name Luke Kirk.

He was more curious than ever as to whom the mystery writer was. Kim had not gotten any idea from talking to Carri, so either the white ranger did not know or she was keeping it a secret from everybody. The one way to find out would be to sneak in on the filming and dig around a little bit.

Of course, he had absolutely no right to be there, and he was not sure he would get an invite if he called Carri and asked. Even if he did, she would hide any information that might be helpful. He had no choice but to be stealth about it.

One might ask how someone goes about sneaking onto a lot and getting onto the set of one of the biggest potential blockbusters in years. For most, that would be a problem. For Tommy, it was easy. Inside his pocket was the black Dino Gem. He could not morph with it. Those powers were long gone, except for Kira's who had her gem charged by the Sentinel Knight last year. Still, there was enough residual energy in the gem that he could access something that at the moment was even better.

Feeling what was left of the gem's powers flow through him, Tommy became invisible. He snuck over toward the main gate, being careful not to step on anything that would make a noise and make him suspicious. It was not hard to clear the guard, who was oblivious to everything that was going on except for what was on his monitor.

Once he was inside the lot, he found a safe place to become visible again, and then he walked out and merged with other foot traffic. He took a moment to assess the people around him. He saw one young male as he finished getting reamed by the woman he could only assume was his boss. Once the woman left, he approached him.

"Excuse me." He said, calling out toward the obviously overworked and underpaid man. He hoped he is too burnt out to care and would just answer his question. The man snapped his head up and Tommy smiled at him. "Sorry to bother you, but I am supposed to meet with someone from Ausus Productions, although I can't remember where she said she'd be."

The young man let out a groan. That is all anybody on the lot was talking about. Well not Ausus specifically, but the movie they were working on. He had just gotten his head chewed off because the lead actress on their show would much rather be sneaking a peak at the Luke Kirk movie than here filming. He was not sure he should tell this stranger where the movie was, but at the moment he didn't give a crap. Besides, they had plenty of their own security over there. "Studio fifteen." He replied with a grunt before turning and storming off.

Tommy chuckled. That had been much easier than he anticipated. He followed the signs on the lot until he was within sight of the studio. He found a good place to hide and went for his Dino Gem once more. Armed with invisibility, he strode toward the studio, being careful to avoid others.

This was not going to be as easy as walking past the guards. He walked around the building quickly, trying to find the best place to enter. Eventually he got lucky. Someone was holding a door wide open while he talked to the security personnel. Tommy moved quickly to get to the door, sneaking in right before the man holding it open did.

Moving quickly, he pushed past his surroundings to try to figure out where he needed to go. This hallway appeared to be full of offices. He imagined where they were shooting had to be around there somewhere.

One of the office doors popped open, and to his surprise Carri walked through. Without any better plan in mind, he elected to follow her for a moment. If she looked like she was going to be out of the office for a while, he would sneak back in and poke around.

He had to be careful; if she caught him in there she would kill him. He was not sure if he really cared now. He was still pissed off at her over the fight they got into a few weeks prior. She had landed them in the tabloids; she had people speculating that this team was not up to the task. He was furious. Kim swore she took care of it, but that did not make her actions right.

For the moment, he tried not to think about that as he followed her to the end of the hallway and through a door. The door revealed another hall. This hallway was wide open, and it led out into what was obviously the movie set. If he was one to get more star struck he would stop and look, but at the moment he did not care.

He watched as Carri made it to the end of the hallway, stopping and moving toward the corner. He assumed she had run into someone. He snuck close enough to hear her conversation, but he could not see whom it was with. He hoped it would give him an idea of what she was up to.

"Hey." He heard her say, as she appeared to lean over and either hug or embrace the other person. Tommy groaned inwardly. She did not hug many people. He prayed it was not his fiancé. She was Muirantian. She was liable to figure him out. Then she would kill him.

"Hey." The gruff male voice replied. Tommy would recognize that voice anywhere.

"You here for a visit?" she asked, turning her body so that her back was toward Tommy. It made it harder to listen, so he snuck in a little closer.

"Of course." Jason replied as though visiting were the most logical thing in the world.

He could hear her snort. "So far you've been on the set every day." She pointed out.

"I've got nothing better to do." Jason said in response.

He could tell from the way Carri moved that she was crossing her arms over her chest. "Shouldn't you be working on book three? AKA the third book I'm going to kill you over."

Tommy froze. It could not be Jason, could it? He heard his friend laugh out loud. "Car, the second book has shot to the top of the charts. You are going to get a movie out of that one too. I don't know what you're complaining over."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to like you writing about that crap." Carri replied with a huff.

Tommy did not hear Jason's response, he had heard enough already. Suddenly it all made sense. How an online investor had the money for a new house, a new motorcycle, a new anything he wanted. How he always seemed to have spare time whenever it was good for him. The silver ranger had to bite his tongue to keep from swearing aloud.

Carri obviously knew this entire time. The two of them were working together keeping this secret. He was going to kill them both. Jason for writing books that sound like ranger stories and selling them, not bothering to give him a heads up. They used to be best friends. He is considered the senior red ranger among reds, the senior ranger on the planet, he should have known. As for Carri, well she flat out lied to his face, among other things.

It took every ounce of strength not to walk out there and rip them both a new one right here. Common sense grabbed a hold of him though. He knew that this was a conversation that can not be had among non-rangers as the word ranger was definitely going to come up more than once. He turned around and started to sneak back out.

For now he would leave them be. However, the very first moment he got an opportunity he was going after both of them.

* * *

Kim sat in the Mystic Realm during what was technically her lunch break. She had had an appointment with Mystic Mother, and she was glad to keep it. Work was stressing her out; she would take the opportunity to play with magic some to relax.

She hoped that she timed everything right this trip, and would get back just in time to scarf down a sandwich before returning to work. She was usually good about timing. It was only when she allowed herself to get busy and distracted, allowing more time to pass than it should, that she screwed up her window coming back. The two times it happened at work, Sandy had been right there to jump on her when she returned.

Both times, she had reported her to Ashley. The former yellow ranger did not mind her using her lunchtime for bending time to work on her powers, as long as she returned on time and did not let her work suffer. So far, the work was good, and outside of two mishaps, she was returning on time. She did not want to push her luck though. Over all the absences she had had for ranger related things, she did not want it to be a late lunch that got her fired.

With a sigh, she turned back toward the project she was working on. She crossed her arms briefly as she thought about it, trying to figure out how to manipulate it the way Mystic Mother suggested.

"You're never going to figure it out that way." A gravelly voice said from behind.

Kim glanced back to see Mystic Mother standing over her shoulder. "Any advice you could give would help." She pointed out. The woman had been more than a little cryptic with what she wanted her to do here. She understood, it was a test of some sort, but sometimes it was hard to get to the finish line when you were not quite sure where the starting line was.

Mystic Mother grunted in response. "If you need advice you aren't ready." She replied. She knew her student could do it if she just put her mind to it. She had to prove she could do it; she was not going to teach her any of the more advanced techniques until she did.

"Right." Kim said a quick roll of her eyes when Mystic Mother was not looking. She loved being here; loved learning, but sometimes the former Rita drove her batty. She frowned and turned her attention back to the task.

Before she could get any further, a figure burst in. "Oh mother!" Rhianna's voice came through loud enough to eclipse any thoughts Kim was having about her task. Knowing that she was not going to get anything done now, she paused to see what was going on.

Mystic Mother turned and looked at her daughter. "Rhianna. Have you come to work on your training?" Her student was much better at working and listening to her than her daughter was. She supposed she should expect it that way; after all, she has only been with her daughter for a short time. By the time they started building a relationship and working on proper training, Rhianna was already old enough to have developed a good rebellious streak.

She vigorously shook her head no. "I've come to make an announcement." She said proudly as she moved to stand in a position where she would have both her mother's and Kim's attention.

"What kind of announcement?" her mother asked skeptically, watching as she grinned broadly at them. This was not going to be good.

Rhianna held up her left hand and pointed to her ring finger. "Skull and I are getting married!" she exclaimed with a schoolgirl squeal.

Kim's attempt not to laugh aloud was completely overshadowed by Mystic Mother's response. "You are absolutely not marrying that boy!" she exclaimed.

"Well mum, I'm old enough to make my own decisions, and he and I are getting married. I love him and I will love him forever." Rhianna replied, as if daring her mother to say otherwise. She had been so thrilled when Skull proposed. He had joked briefly about eloping, but she wanted to make sure she could run home and tell her mom first, just to see her reaction, then she would consider eloping.

"Old enough? Perhaps you can pass as old enough on the surface world, but I know how old you really are." Mystic Mother argued back. She had been artificially aged, and although she had gained a few years living in the mystic realm, she was hardly old enough to make this kind of decision. "As for loving him forever, don't forget that forever to Skull is a mere eighty human years. You will far outlive that."

Kim looked back over at Rhianna, who was working on a reply. She warned Mystic Mother that she should keep Rhianna from seeing Skull before that relationship spiraled out of hand, but her teacher would not listen to her. Skull helped save Rhianna, and although she understood, it that did not mean it was a good idea to allow the relationship to continue. She had seen the two of them sneaking around. She had a feeling it would one day come to this.

"I've had a lot more life experience than most human girls my age." Rhianna said, in an attempt to prove that age did not matter. It was true; she had done a lot that most girls did not. Her mother could not argue that. "And as far as me outliving Skull," she paused, trying to think of a good response. When she glanced toward the red ranger, she had one. "Kim's marrying Tommy and if she can do it so can I."

Kim snorted, unsure about what kind of argument Mystic Mother could have against that point. Tommy would die early, probably around the same time as Skull, while she will continue to live her life for who only knew how many more years. She and Rhianna were relatively close in age, at least where their life spans were concerned, she supposed they'd live on until about the same point in life together.

"Kim is not my daughter." Mystic Mother fired back. It was no surprise that Kim and Tommy were getting married anyway. They had been together on and off for years. And if she wanted to waste fifty human years watching him grow old and die, then so be it. "You are, and you will listen to me."

Rhianna let out some sort of noise in between a grunt and a squeal as she stopped her foot. "I am going to marry Skull and that's final."

"No child, it's not." Mystic Mother said as she reached up and put her hands to her temples. "You've gone and given your mother a migraine. Why don't you return to your room and try not to get into any trouble. As for you," she paused and turned toward Kim, "we'll continue this at your next session."

Kim watched as their room inside the mystic realm emptied. She could not help but giggle once they were gone. Rhianna got the marriage bug. That seemed to be going around lately. She looked back down at what she was supposed to be working on. At least she would have some time to think about this. Plus she was definitely going to make it back to work in time. She smiled as she opened up a portal and teleported herself away.

* * *

Arius sat in Deimos's throne room in a cage. It was the most demeaning position he had ever been in during his entire existence and he hated it. Of course, this was not the worst thing Deimos had put him through over the past few weeks. It was simply another embarrassment in a long line of them that he was forced to suffer through.

He was lucky and he knew it. Deimos could have killed him by now. He did not know what the holdup was; he almost wished he would do it and get it over with. Death was much more dignified than this.

Deimos chose that moment to come storming back in and he took a seat in his chair. Things were not going well at all with his plans regarding Kaycea. Arius, his number one resource, was currently caged beside him. He was only keeping him alive to determine if he had any further usefulness. He seemed to get under Kaycea's skin, which was more than he could say for Xinas.

Xinas was returning, which was another failure. More disturbing than having to call Xinas back to sort through what was going on out there was the news he just received from Shax. Jakar had taken it upon himself to help them out. He agreed with Shax assessment that Jakar was not there to merely help them out. He had some sort of agenda; he needed one of his leaders back there to take care of him.

The question was which one. The door in front of him opened and Xinas entered. He was about to come up with some sort of answer to that. "My lord." Xinas said, bowing, as he got closer.

"Xinas." He said as he stared at his warrior. Xinas stood and Deimos continued. "Your latest in a string of failures was horrendous."

"I apologize." Xinas said. He hoped he was not being brought back to face his death. Then again, Arius was alive, although in a cage, which was worse than any death he could imagine.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Deimos questioned. He wanted to hear a good argument, wanted to hear some reason why he should send back out there instead of being punished, then relocated.

"Kaycea is not an easy enemy to battle." Xinas replied. "She is a Phadosean Warrior, a Muirantian, plus the Planetary red. I do not believe it's possible to retrieve her with the path we've chosen to go on for this battle."

"You're saying we can't convince Kaycea to return and be my bride?" Deimos questioned. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. He had to get Kaycea to join with him. It was the only way he could get to lead the evil empire. Which he wanted that more than anything.

"It is next to impossible with our current tactics." Xinas replied. He did not want to say that it can't be done, but the truth was he did not see how it could be. Kaycea was powerful, and her team backed her up. He had used his best strategies and she tore them down as if they were nothing.

Before Deimos could open his mouth to ream Xinas, Arius spoke. "It's not impossible." He said, risking consequences of his own by sticking his nose out. He had to though; if he could not get himself back out there, it was over for him. "You just have to know how to do it."

Deimos turned toward him, ignoring for the moment that Arius interrupted him. "Are you saying that after all of your failures, you still believe this is a task you can handle?"

"If you let me return I will prove it to you." Arius assured him. "Kaycea and I are playing a game. She may think she has her pieces lined up for the win, but in the end, I can assure you that it will be us that will come out victorious. You just have to allow me to continue playing."

Deimos thought about it for a moment. Xinas, after such a short period, seemed utterly defeated. He did not see that he had much choice but to put his faith into Arius again. "Fine." He said as he gestured for to open the cage. They did so and he watched as Arius climbed out. "There will be no more second chances. If you fail me again, it is over for you."

"I understand." Arius assured him. He did not intend to fail again. He had failed one too many times, for his liking already.

Deimos nodded and then gestured for his minions to put Xinas in the cage. He watched the other commander struggle as he got thrown in. "You and I have some matters to…. discuss before I allow you to continue." He said before turning his attention back toward Arius. "As for you, you need to get back to the ship immediately. Jakar has apparently paid us a visit. I do not want him interfering with any progress we might have been able to make."

"Of course. He will be appropriately taken care of." Arius assured him. He had crossed paths with Jakar on a few occasions. He was frightening to most, but he knew he could take Jakar on easily. He would need to battle with him; he doubted that he was coming to help their cause. If anything, he was trying to hinder it someway.

"Good." Deimos said before quickly dismissing him. He watched Arius leave, and once the doors shut behind him he turned back to Xinas. "Now what to do with you." He said, smiling evilly as he contemplated how to punish him for his failure.

* * *

Carri found herself sitting in her makeshift office in Los Angeles, staring at her computer screen. She was trying to get some work done on something other than the movie however it was proving difficult. With everything starting up, she was getting pulled in several different directions constantly. That was why she made herself a LA office, so she could sit down and try to do some other work while she was up here.

She was hoping that soon she would not be needed in LA every day, but only time would tell. For now, she was here, and for a rare moment, she wasn't needed. She slipped off the set as soon as Jason left, and so far, they had not called looking for her.

Jason was probably going to be there more than she was. He had loomed every day so far, checking things out and making sure they met his approval. Although nobody ever questioned his presence, she was glad he had an excuse to be there. Both Jason and Kim had been established as Mr. Kirk's representatives with the scriptwriter, who was told Mr. Kirk was agoraphobic. Although the scriptwriter was contractually bound not to say he was agoraphobic, he could still point out both Jason and Kim as his assistants.

Jason had tons of time on his hands now that his second book just released. He was going to take a break before starting on his third book. It was nice for him that the break coincided with the start of the moving filming.

Despite all the good publicity and the potential income, Carri did not care if he ever got to his third book. She was still outraged over his second book cover. As soon as she got home from New York, she grabbed Kim and showed her a picture of the image. How the red ranger had not seen it at that point, she was not sure. Of course, Kim was sporting a new ring when Carri got back; she assumed the engagement had kept her distracted from outside events.

When she saw it, she was as ticked as Carri and the two girls wasted no time going to corner the black ranger. They jumped on him about how this was no better than the last book cover, and how from the book description he was still using a lot of their daily drama as his book drama. The rat had the audacity to smile at them in response as he handed them their autographed copies.

Although still peeved, they tried not to let it get to them. There was nothing they could do about it; the book had already firmly secured its place at number one on the charts. Then there was the fact Jason kept pointing out, that the book was going to bring them both money in the end. That did not mean they were going to like it at all but they would have to deal with it. Of course, Jason promised the next book would be better, but they were not falling for that again.

Carri snorted to herself as her computer beeped. She pulled herself back into the moment as she looked down at her laptop. She had a mere two percent left of her battery life. Reaching in to her laptop case, she pulled out her charger and plugged it in. She let out a sigh of relief as she watched the battery start to charge itself. She could not afford the battery dying on her. She was in the middle of working on some ideas for her next show.

She was excited about getting this up and running. Her father promised her once her current show finished airing its spring season and the movie got on its way, he would help her pull together some of her new ideas. For now, she was just working on outlines, pulling together all the thoughts she had. She was working on putting them all together to present something solid for her father to see what he thought.

If it looked good, she wanted to pull back a bit from her current show, leaving it in very competent hands, and start to get this one together. She would like to have something solid by next spring so it would have a chance at a fall lineup somewhere. As she went to focus her full attention back toward what she hoped would one day be her next success, there was a knock at her door.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Come in." she called out.

The door opened and one of the guys who was working on her set walked in. She flashed him a small smile. "Hello." She greeted, not able to think of his name or what he did for the life of her. She did recognize him. "Can I help you?"

"Hi." He said somewhat tentatively. He could tell by the look on her face that she was not sure what was going on here. "I'm Christian, I work in set design." He said, watching as she nodded. She did not say anything so he took that as his cue to continue. "I wanted to talk to you about one of the changes you made this morning."

"Ok." She slightly drew out the word. She did not know what he could have to talk to her about. He was not in charge of anything, technically, he did not have any business in her office, but she would hear him out anyway.

"You see," he started as he sat down in a chair across from her, "I am a huge Luke Kirk fan. I know everything about him. I have read the first book, and I just finished reading the second book. I feel like I know exactly how he would want to represent his book in the movie."

He watched her smile. He was not sure what she found so amusing about that statement but he continued anyway. "The changes that you had them make to the ship… there is no way Luke Kirk would approve of that. I came in here to tell you that you were wrong and they needed to be changed back."

While Carri appreciated his enthusiasm for the book, it took all her strength not to ream the man for thinking he could come in here and tell her she was wrong and she had to change things. She knew the alteration he was talking about; it had actually been Jason's suggestion. While nobody else in a million years would get this, the small change he made was a nod to the original Astro Megaship.

"Since you're new, I'll let this slide." She spoke, trying to choose her words carefully so she did not pick a fight with an employee. "However, I do not appreciate you coming in here and telling me that you think you know this movie better than I do. The change will stand and you need to get back to work." She finished as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm telling you, you're wrong." Christian protested. "I know Luke Kirk. He wouldn't approve of you messing with his work like that."

He had some nerve to tell her that he knew her "brother" better than she did. If it weren't for her promise to keep Jason's identity a secret, she would tell him as much. "I have Luke Kirk's best interests at heart. I'm sure he would approve of the changes."

"I know he wouldn't." Christian fired back as calmly as possible.

She was not quite sure how to convince him he was wrong, and to shut up before he lost his job, but before she could think too much on it, her communicator chirped. She stood up and pushed her desk chair in. "I have a matter to attend to. I suggest you go back out there and do your job and stop worrying about the changes you know nothing about."

He watched her as she paused to look at her laptop. She was double-checking to make sure the battery was still good before she headed to the office door and opened it. "If you'll excuse me." She said, pointing forcibly toward the outside.

"I know I'm right." Christian mumbled as he passed her and headed into the hallway.

Carri slammed the door shut as she exited, turning to find the nearest abandoned room before entering and slamming that door as well. "Go ahead." She said into her communicator once she was sure she was safely inside.

"We've got serious trouble brewing in the park." Billy quickly replied.

"On it." Carri said as she shifted. "Planetary ranger, power up!" she called out. With that, the white ranger was off to battle.

* * *

The white ranger was the last to arrive on the battlefield. She glanced at the two figures standing in the center of an army of Keresecks. Pausing for a moment, she stared at the one with the giant battle-axe. "Haven't we kicked his ass before?"

"We have." Kim confirmed. She was not surprised that Jakar was back. She knew Elemi was still fighting him, knew that he had mentioned more than once that he was going to kill the red Nova Ranger then destroy the red Planetary Ranger.

"So we'll just do it again." Jason said with a shrug.

"You think you can simply defeat me?" Jakar questioned with a laugh. "Last time it took two teams of rangers, and even then you did no harm to me."

"Last time you weren't faced with an entire team of Planetary Rangers." Kim was quick to point out as she called for her Fire Saber and powered it up. "We don't need the Novas, we'll destroy you ourselves."

"We'll see about that." Jakar said with a laugh as he gestured for Fessus to lead the Keresecks to attack. He watched as they covered all the rangers but one, that was the ranger he was looking to do battle with.

"I take it you still want your shot at me?" Kim asked as she inched toward him. He was in for a surprise. Her abilities had grown exponentially since they last saw each other. That was the benefit of borrowing time to work on them.

"This time I'm going to finish you." Jakar assured her as he swiftly moved toward her, swinging his battle-axe as he went.

Much like the last time they battled, Kim rushed toward him with her sword in hand and immediately attacked. She was good with the weapon, she knew how to push the enemy back and she had done it to Jakar once before. They fought furiously for a while, and then she saw Jakar reach behind his back. She knew this part of the routine, he had done it to her the last time they battled. As Jakar pulled out the small knife to stab her with, she turned and spun away from him, missing his furious advance and ending up behind him. With one swift kick, she sent him tumbling forward.

Jakar stood quickly and turned toward her, lifting his right arm in the air before slamming it to the ground. Much to his surprise, Kim levitated herself up right before he hit. He had not been expecting her to move so quickly and the look of disappointment on his face showed.

"You think I'm going to fall for the same tricks twice?" Kim asked, a bit of cockiness in her voice.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't." Jakar said with a snarl. He then turned and went back to fighting her hand to hand while he worked on a new tactic.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the rangers were handling the small crew that has gotten thrown at them. "I feel like I'm missing something here." Jen said as she destroyed the Kereseck in front of her and found herself back to back with the white ranger.

"You remember Elemi?" Carri asked as she flipped an oncoming Kereseck over while pulling its head back, allowing Jen to get behind it and destroy its power disk.

"Of course." Jen said. Although she had not had much contact with the red Nova Ranger, she had heard a lot about him when she was researching the past with Time Force.

"One of his team's missions is to stop Jakar." Carri said pausing as she and Jen went to take out the three Keresecks that were on coming. A few moments later, she continued. "Jakar took an interest in Kim, seeing as how she's sort of got a lot going on for her ability wise, and last year we beat him back along with the help of the Novas."

"I think I get it." Jen said. She remembered hearing stories from her mentor about how she always had bad guys wanting to challenge her powers. It was never an easy life she led. She wondered if she had ever mentioned Jakar to her before. There was a good chance she had not. After all, if she knew that Jen was going to be there at some point while she fought Jakar, she would not tell her what happened. It was too risky. Unless of course she needed to push Jen in a certain direction for the battle to go the way it was written. Before she could think about that further, she and Carri found themselves taking on another small group of Keresecks.

Once they finished that battle, they looked around and noticed that most of the other Keresecks were gone. Tommy was taking on Fessus, and although he was not much of a challenge, the two girls were looking for a change of scenery so they rushed off to help the silver ranger.

It was not long before Jason, Zhane and Rocky finished the remainder of the Keresecks and joined Tommy as well. Jakar looked over and noticed that the Keresecks were gone and that Fessus was heavily outnumbered. He needed to claim his victory before the other rangers turned their attention toward him.

He blocked a hit from the red ranger, and used brute strength to hold her arms up with one hand while hitting her in the stomach with the sharp end of the axe with his other hand. Kim doubled over and as she did, he swung upwards, hitting her hard enough to crack her helmet as her body flew backwards. One more swipe to the chest and she tumbled across the battlefield.

Kim lay on the ground for a moment. Her visor was cracked, but that would repair itself after she powered down. Her entire body was cracked, and she was certain she had broken several bones underneath her uniform. It was moments like these she was glad she was Muirantian. Her body was already starting to repair itself.

It was a good thing, as Jakar jumped into the air, planning on landing on her using a combination of his strength and his axe to issue the final blow. If it had been anyone else on her team, she was not sure they would have the physical ability to stop him. Although she was still in pain, her body had done enough work that she could roll out of the way.

Jakar hit the empty ground where Kim once laid with a thud that shook the entire battlefield. He let out a roaring noise as he went to attack the red ranger again. This time Kim was ready for him. She concentrated on the flames on the end of her saber, and between her abilities as the red fire ranger and a little sorceress trick Mystic Mother showed her long ago, she pulled fire from the end of her sword turned it into an electric ball, shooting it at Jakar's chest as he flew toward her.

It hit him with an electric jolt and he went flying backwards. Kim pulled herself to her feet and did it again. It was nothing more than a manipulation of the elements. It would not kill him, but it hurt like hell. She did it one more time as the other rangers were running to her side.

"Kim are you alright?" Tommy asked as he went and grabbed her arm, looking into her eyes through the crack in her helmet. He had been worried sick when he saw her go down, but he could not get there fast enough.

"I'll be fine." She assured him, watching as Fessus went to stand next to his master and help him up.

Seemingly, out of nowhere the elements exploded. Lighting rang through the sky; wind blew Jakar back as the ground beneath him begins to shift. Kim chuckled to herself as she glanced over at her opponent. "You ready to call it quits yet?" she called out over the noise her fellow rangers attacks were making.

Before Jakar could answer, he got struck by lightning and knocked down. He was furious as he stood. Her powers had outgrown what they were the last time he fought her. This was going to be more difficult than he anticipated. It did not help his cause that there were other Planetary Rangers ready to attack using their elements on a moment's notice.

He needed to try another tactic, separate her from her team somehow and go about destroying her some other way. Of course, he would have to make sure the Novas were distracted, or destroyed, beforehand. It had to all be done before Deimos got his hands on her and before he let her powers grow even further. It was not an impossible task, not for someone of his skill, but it was not going to get accomplished today.

"Until we meet again red ranger." Jakar said as he took off.

Kim let out a sigh of relief once he was gone. He was a strong fighter, and there was no guarantee how this would have gone had it been allowed to carry on further. "Come on guys." She said as she turned toward her team. "He's gone for now, I think it's safe to say we can get back to our normal lives too." With that, Kim led the mass exodus of rangers from what had just been the battlefield.

* * *

After the battle with Jakar, Carri found herself making her way back into her office. She headed behind her desk and plopped down in her chair rather ungracefully. She was tired from the long Kereseck battle and she wished she could just call it a day, but it was still early and there was still work to be done.

She glanced at her black computer screen for a moment before reaching up and hitting the power button to get it to pull itself out of power saver mode. She hit the button once and nothing happened. Frowning she tried a second time, only to get the same results.

A wave of panic hit her. This was so not good. She left it plugged in it could not have died. She went to check the plug and that was when she noticed it. The power cord had been removed from her computer and the wall and was piled up on her laptop carrying case.

She rushed to put it back in and booted up the computer. While she waited, she placed a call to the security office, asking them to look over the tapes for the last little bit and see who was in her office. It had to be deliberate, she knew for a fact it was plugged in when she left. As she put in her password to start windows, she supposed it was partially her fault for not locking the door. However, she was in a hurry to get to the fight. Besides, that did not give anybody the right to sabotage her things.

She gave the computer a minute to finish booting before she opened up the file she had been working on earlier. When she finished scrolling down to the bottom, she flopped over and smacked her head against the table, letting out a groan. Her mind had been in so many different places, she had not saved in a while. She lost a good eighty percent or more of what she had done that day. For reasons she was not going to bother figuring out, the word program had not backed up anything either. If it had, it would have alerted her when she started the program. It was simply gone.

The phone rang and Carri picked it up. "Miss Hillard?" The voice on the other end questioned.

"Yes?" she replied.

"This is Patrick in the security office. The camera facing your door picked up one person entering between the time you left and the time you returned." He had fast-forwarded through the tapes. There was not any other traffic in front of the office; it had not been that hard to do.

"Do you know who it was?" she asked, ready to rip someone a new one.

"The same kid who exited your office when you left." He replied.

She let out a grunt. She was going to let him slide before but not now. "Can you please save a copy of that for me?"

"Yes mam." He replied as she hung up the phone. She stood from her chair and marched over toward the door, flinging it open at the same time someone pushed from the outside.

"Hey babe." Rocky greeted. He told her he was going to be in LA that afternoon checking on his school and she invited him to drop by and take a look at the set. He was not sure if now was a good time though. Something had gotten her seriously riled up in the ten minutes it took him to leave the Command Chamber and finish the drive to the studio.

"Hey." She greeted gruffly before walking past him and heading down the hallway toward the studio. Someone was supposed to alert her if she had a visitor. She was glad Jason had left by now. Not that she couldn't pull it off as her good friend visiting, but she preferred not to have to juggle keeping his writing identity a secret at the moment.

She left that thought behind as a confused blue ranger followed her down the hallway and onto the set. Security stopped Rocky briefly, causing the white ranger to stop in her tracks and indicate he was with her. The way she was walking, pissed and with purpose, Rocky was not sure he wanted to be with her at the moment. However, he continued to follow anyway.

It did not take her long to spot her target. She walked right up to him and pointed her finger in his direction. "You." She said accusingly.

All movement in the area stopped as everyone turned to stare. "Yeah?" Christian replied innocently.

"You were the only person in my office while I was gone. There are maybe two people in this entire building allowed in my office in my absence." She said. She was not going to stand her and let him play this game with her. She had him on camera; he could not pretend to be innocent.

"I was looking for you." He said defensively.

"So what, you couldn't find me and you unplugged my computer?" she said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I did no such thing." He lied through his teeth.

She snorted. "Not only did you unplug my computer, but my battery died and I lost an entire day's worth of work."

Christian rolled his eyes and sighed. "Crazy bitch. Don't accuse me of that shit."

Carri's foot started tapping and the blue ranger wondered briefly if he should intervene. However, much to Carri's credit, she held temper together. She was beyond furious. There was a logical part of her said she should not react here in front of all these other employees' watchful eyes. She had gotten herself in enough hot water last month with the tabloids and the airplane incident. Although every instinct told her to punch him in his lying mouth, her response was quite calm and she was quite proud of herself.

"You're fired." She said simply. That one thing she could do that would hurt him the most. She did not care if she could physically prove he did it. Nobody was going to stand in front of her, in front of all her other employees, and call her a bitch. She turned toward the security guard that had gravitated toward all the action. "I want him off of this set and off of the lot now." She ordered.

The well-built security guard grabbed Christian by the arm and started to pull him away. That did not shut him up though. He continued to call her a bitch and swear that the film was going to be a miserable failure and that they were all going down.

Rocky came up behind her as he disappeared and put his arms around her. "You did good." He assured her as he leaned into her.

She spun around, contemplating saying something snappy about whether or not he thought she always did good, but in the end changed her mind. "Yes, well, mark it down on the calendar." She said with a snort. "Now if there were something I could pummel I'd feel better."

He let out a little chuckle in response. "Maybe we should get you a punching bag for your office." And the house, and just about anywhere else she visited. "Do you still have time to give me a tour?" he asked as he watched her physically calm down a bit.

"Sure." She said, noticing that she was finally unclenching her fist. She had a ton of work to redo before she left for the night, but Rocky was not always in LA so she figured she should walk him around a bit first. It might help her calm down some too. Then it was time for an intense session with the computer. The thought made her groan a little. However, she had nothing else that had to get done that day so she would be able to get her work done and head home for what should be an uneventful rest of the day.

* * *

Later that evening, Kim stood in the Command Chamber with Billy and Adam, waiting for all the other rangers to show up. She was excited about what she wanted to share with them. She just had to wait for the rest of her team to show up.

Adam reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out his power coin. "So what's going on?" he asked. He had been surprised to hear from Kim, and even more surprised that she asked him to teleport up with his frog coin.

"I have something I want to show the old team." She said as she walked over toward him. There was no point in not getting them ready for a demonstration. She held out her hand and Adam glanced at her for a second before depositing his coin into it.

She took the blue coin and headed over toward the small machine she and Billy created. If she was right, it would not take long before the machine got the grids to recognize the coin and Adam was ready to morph. Billy had contacted her right after she got out of work. By all his estimations, the ancient grid they used had repaired itself and it was ready to hold the rest of the coins.

To test it, she morphed herself and spent a good half an hour running around as the pink ranger, testing out all her old powers. The test had been successful, and there was no sign that the grids could not hold her morph for an infinite amount of time. Now the true test will be if the grid will recognize and hold the others coins and allow the team to sustain their morph as well.

She watched the machine work as several other teleportation streaks came in. "Adam." The blue ranger's voice caused Kim to turn toward the others as he went to greet his best friend.

A black teleportation streak flew in and Kim silently noted they were short one. She certainly was not going to wait forever for her to get here. Carri had said she would be there in a minute; however, she was not sure what a minute meant.

"So what's this about?" Tommy asked. She had called him up there and told him to bring his coin. He imagined it had to do with their old powers since the rest of the team, including Adam was there.

"You'll see." Kim replied, a twinkle in her eye. The machine behind her indicated it was finished and Kim took the coin out. She was certain the coin was ready to go. She did not need Billy to scan it to make sure. She could feel the grid surging through it. It was all part of being Muirantian.

Deciding that she did not want to wait on Carri any longer, she walked the coin over and held it out to Adam. He took it back from her and regarded her curiously. She simply grinned at him. "Morph." She encouraged him.

"Really?" he asked and she nodded. "It's morphin time!" he called out, surprised by the surge of power that started to flow through the coin. "Blue ranger power!"

The rest of the team was stunned to see a fully morphed blue ranger standing in front of them. "Well I'll be damned." Jason said as he got a good look at Adam.

"You fixed it?" Tommy questioned. He should not be surprised, Kim was coming into many abilities and he was certain that he had only scratched the surface of what she could do. Most of it she was either keeping a secret or just not talking about. It frightened and amazed him all at the same time.

"Billy and I did." Kim said with a shrug as though it was not a big deal. She had told him she thought she would eventually be able to fix it. She did not tell him how, but between her natural abilities and Ninjor's tips she could feel the grids, she could work with them, try to get them to work with her. She walked over toward her fiancé and held out her hand. "Here." She said, indicating that he should hand over her coin.

Tommy reached into his pocket and pulled out his falcon coin, then deposited it into her hands. He watched as she went over to a machine and placed his coin inside. A few minutes later, she returned. He took it back and stared at it for a moment as if it held some sort of secret it was going to share. In a way, he supposed it did.

"It's morphin time!" he called out as he thrust his hand behind his back. "White ranger power!"

Kim smiled, satisfied as she had two fully morphed rangers now. She glanced back at Billy briefly. "How are we holding up?"

"Good. The grid shows no signs of weakening or not being able to sustain the morphs." He replied with a smile. He was relieved that it appeared to be working. This was one less task he had to focus on, which meant even more free time to spend with his pregnant wife.

With a smile, she turned toward the next ranger, and took the ape coin from the blue ranger's hands. As she went to put it in the machine, a white streak flew into the Command Chamber. "Sorry I'm late." She said somewhat apologetically. She had spent all afternoon trying to recreate the file from memory. She had it all back now, and she thought it was better than before. This time she emailed it to herself, saved it on her hard disk, and saved it on her flash drive before leaving the office.

It had taken longer to do than she hoped, only because her father had sent her some headlines from TMZ. Apparently, Christian ran straight to them and thanks to his accounts there was speculation of trouble on set and that she was some sort of a tyrant. Her father's legal team was already on it, but it was enough to make her head explode. She was glad to be here and out of the office, away from the drama.

For the first time she looked around and what was going on here and really took it in. "Damn." She said noticing the two morphed rangers.

"That's what I thought." Jason replied, flashing her grin. The exchange between the two got them an evil look from Tommy, whose thoughts immediately flashed back to that morning.

"You like?" Kim asked as she walked back over and handed Rocky his coin.

"Very much so." She replied as her fiancé went to morph. She knew Kim had been working on the grids; however, she had no idea that they were this close to being ready to support a team again. Not that they needed the powers at the moment but they were a nice backup to have.

Tommy watched as Carri shifted closer toward Jason as Rocky let the red uniform take him over. They were in the Command Chamber, the best place to talk in private, and he was not going to hold this conversation in any longer. Kim started to walk up to the duo but Tommy cut her off. "You guys have a good day at work?"

Carri snorted. "Not really." She replied, as she looked at him curiously, trying to read behind the helmet. Tommy never asked about her work, and the tone in his voice suggested he was not really asking now.

"You played with your movie all day?" Tommy asked, watching as she nodded. He let out a little noise from behind his helmet that reminded Jason of when he was the evil green ranger. He could not contemplate that long as Tommy's head turned toward him. "Or should I say you played with Jason's movie all day?"

"What are you talking about bro?" Jason asked, trying his hardest to remain calm and play stupid.

"You two thought you could keep your little secret forever." Tommy said as he cocked his head sideways. "I saw the two of you in the studio this morning, the cats out of the bag." He said with a growl. They had better not keep lying to him. Carri was already on thin ice with him and now, Jason was not faring much better.

"You broke into my studio!" Carri practically exploded, pointing an accusing finger at him. His name was not on any list that would allow him access. The only way in would be to teleport. "What, you used the teleporter for personal use?" she asked, watching as he did not move. "Christ, that's it isn't it. It wasn't ok for me to teleport to New York, you make a big freaking deal out of it and you could actually justify that but you used the teleportation system to break into my studio to spy on me." She finished, contemplating if she could physically throttle the team's leader. She had been on edge earlier in the day, and he just pushed her off of the cliff.

He did not respond to that. He'd let her think he teleported in, it was better than admitting he still had the power of invisibility from his Dino Gem and was using that for personal gain purposes. "That's not the point." He said. He could see her seething from him blowing her off. "The point is the two of you have been hiding the fact that Jason is Luke Kirk."

Carri crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him. "So what if we have?" she asked, somewhat grateful that he did not suspect Kim was in on it as well. She would take the fallout, she and Tommy argued all the time anyway and she doubted it bothered Jason that much, but she did not want this blowing back to Kim.

"Wait a second." Rocky protested, stepping forward. Tommy was not the only one left in the dark on this. As Carri's fiancé, he felt somewhat betrayed that she had not shared that secret with him. He thought they told each other everything and that was huge. "You knew who Luke Kirk was this entire time?"

She shrugged as if it was no big deal. She had kept a thousand secrets for Kim and Jason over the years. This was no different. "It's Jason's secret to tell, not mine." She replied.

"It's a huge secret." Rocky protested. He could not help it, he was jealous she had been keeping it from him. He thought they were supposed to tell each other everything. "This isn't like not telling me who Jason has slept with, you're making his movie. This is important."

Jason looked like he wanted to comment, but Carri continued. "You don't know the names of everybody I work with, why is this any different?"

"Because it's Jason." Rocky stated, knowing how it sounded even as the words came out of his mouth. He did not mean it as she was about to take it.

"So what you jealous because you've known Jason longer than me and he didn't tell you?" Carri asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "Or maybe you're just jealous because Jason and I share secrets. So what. A girl has got to have some friends to talk to."

"I'm not jealous." Rocky was quick to point out. Maybe he was, but he was not going to tell her that. He had always known they were close, even though it was hard for him to deal with at times they never hid the nature of their sibling-esque relationship. "Jason is a friend and a fellow ranger and while he's entitled to his secrets, I would just think something that big you would feel confident enough to confide in the man you're about to swear to spend the rest of your life with."

She regarded him curiously for a moment. He was obviously hurt and he felt like she did not trust him. "That's not fair." She said rather calmly. "If you think that trust between us depends on me betraying my friends secrets then"

"Enough." Tommy barked. They could have this lover's quarrel later. "This is about you," he said, pointing at Carri as he spoke, "lying to my face when I confronted you about Luke Kirk. About the two of you keeping secrets from the team, and about you," this time he turned and pointed toward Jason, "making money off of books based on ranger adventures. If you were going to do something like this, you should have at the very least given me a heads up. I am the senior red here, this is ranger related. I have every right to know when other rangers are using our lives as writing material."

Jason exploded back at Tommy, which started a three-way argument between the black, silver and white rangers. Kim stood in the back, listening to them go. She knew her friends were trying to keep her out of this, to keep Tommy from finding out that his fiancé was in on this secret as well. She appreciated what they were doing. However, it was not fair that the two of them were going to take a head on assault from the rest of the team while she remained unscathed.

"Enough!" she spoke loudly and authoritatively, causing the others to shut up and turn toward her as she walked over and stood next to Tommy. "It's alright Tommy. You may not have known, but the Planetary Red did."

Jason and Carri exchanged a glance. They knew this was not going to be good as Tommy clinched his fists and turned toward his fiancé. "This whole time I was asking for advice, for you to see if you could find anything out, and you knew?"

"I did." Kim said, her voice staying even despite the fact that Tommy was obviously furious. "Like Carri, I promised to keep Jason's secret. I knew what he was doing, and it doesn't hurt us or compromise us in any way." It pissed her off personally, but that was another matter entirely. As far as the ranger aspects of the books, Jason never wrote anything that a non-ranger reader would assume came from the rangers. He pulled a lot from his ranger memories when he wrote, but he was very good at taking everything and spinning it into his own story.

"So you took it upon yourself to make that decision without consulting me?" Tommy questioned. He knew she was the red ranger now, he knew she had a legacy much different from his own that meant more to other races in other parts of the galaxy, but here on Earth he was the most respected of all the rangers. To him, they were all disrespecting him.

"I found out before we ever assembled the Turbo team. And why would I consult you? If I remember correctly we weren't exactly best friends before we got back together." Kim pointed out. Sure, in the four months they worked together before they started dating again they were friends, but she would use the term loosely at best. Things were awkward between them for a while.

"What about now? What about a few weeks ago when we were talking about it? You didn't think you could share it with me then?" Tommy asked his voice raising. Before Kim could answer, he continued. "You lied to my face. You're no better than Carri."

"Hey!" the white ranger exclaimed, pushing herself into the middle of the argument and cutting off anything her friend would have said in return. "You are not going to stand here and yell at everybody like this. You may be the senior red but that does not mean you have to know everything about everything. So what if we want to keep secrets."

"So what?" Tommy repeated, turning toward her and taking a step in her direction. "It's not about just the secret keeping. I'm not stupid; I know the three of you talk. It is about the lying to my face. It's about the rangers, and protecting the secrets Zordon made us swear to protect, it's"

"You obviously haven't bothered to read a book." Jason said, stepping up beside Carri. "If you did you'd know that I never compromised any of the promises made to Zordon. You are always so full of yourself; you think you're always right. Well you are wrong on this one. You have no idea what you're talking about."

"How dare you." Tommy said with a snarl. "If the three of you think you're going to be able to band together on this and force me to change my mind, you have another thing coming to you. I'm right, and everybody else in here knows it." He said, gesturing to Rocky and the two men not on the current team who had been watching the exchange silently.

"That's bullshit, and I'm not going to stand here and get bitched at by you anymore." Carri said as she took a step back. "I'm out of here."

Jason fell in line beside her before she teleported off. He needed a stiff drink, and he had a feeling the girls did as well. "Me too."

"We'll discuss this when you've had time to think about it." Kim said, surprising Tommy by going to join the others. She knew Tommy too well. He was furious, and this discussion was going to be nothing more than a pointless argument, with him pushing and Jason and Carri not backing down, until he had a chance to cool down.

Jason grabbed both the girls and teleported them off to his house, where he would drive them to a bar away from town for a drink. The three of them disappeared, leaving four confused and upset men behind.

* * *

Arius finally returned to his ship and headed toward the bridge, where he found Shax sitting in his chair. His warrior stood immediately and vacated, gesturing for him to sit down. "It's good to see you again." Shax said, relieved that their more competent leader has returned.

"I had some issues to take care of with Deimos before I could return." He said as he sat down, not wanting to go into detail about his humiliation. "Where is Jakar?" he questioned, wanting to take care of that fool first.

"Gone." Shax said simply. "He left after his defeat at Kaycea's hands." He had not taken the loss in battle well at all. He had come back to the ship for a few moments, spewed some anger-induced nonsense, and took off.

"Good. Then I won't have to worry about wasting my time on him." Arius replied. This meant he could hurry up and start working on his newest plan to take out Kaycea. "Have any of our friends agreed to come fight for us?" he questioned. He knew they were constantly putting out requests throughout the galaxy for other aliens to come offer their services.

"So far no. There are rumors that others are afraid to face their demise at the hands of Kaycea." Shax replied. He understood, lately coming here meant certain death. However if they were true warriors they would stand up for the task anyway.

"Those cowards will come out here whether they like it or not." Arius spat. He was not going to tolerate being turned down. Perhaps it did not bother Xinas that he was getting nothing but rejected, however it did bother him. Once they learned he was back and would come for those who were summoned if necessary they were sure to come do his bidding. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"While you were gone, we made a discovery." Shax said. It was something he shared with Xinas, but the other leader did not find it important. He thought it could be, and he thought it was something that needed to get shared with Arius. "There is another active team of rangers that came about recently. At the moment there are only three of them, yellow, blue and red." He was not sure how long they had been there for, he stumbled across them monitoring for something else.

"Are these rangers allied with Kaycea?" He questioned. The last thing he needed was to have three more active rangers joining the battle.

"As far as we can tell from our reports, these are relatively new rangers that have no connection to Kaycea." Shax replied.

Arius thought about this for a moment. Perhaps this could work to his advantage. If they did not know Kaycea, they did not know who he was. Maybe he could sweep in and convince them to work for him without Kaycea ever suspecting anything. He could not think of a better way to beat a ranger than with a ranger. He may need to use a bit of magic to get them to cooperate, but it would be doable.

"Find out everything you can about these new rangers. Perhaps we can convince them to work for us." Arius ordered as he leaned back in his chair. He was feeling somewhat satisfied. This was his best plan yet. Getting rangers on his side would guarantee him a victory over Kaycea.

* * *

Jason, Kim and Carri climbed up onto three bar stools in a bar that the black ranger found between LA and Angel Grove. They got the bartender to bring them three beers and as they waited, Kim opened up the conversation.

"Well, so much for testing coins." She said with a sigh. Everything had been a success so far, however they were short the yellow and black coins to see if it would really work and sustain their full team of six. "I suppose I should have made you guys stay and finish, but…" Kim's voice trailed off as she shrugged.

Carri snorted. "Please, Oliver wasn't going to let us get back to the coins for the night." She pointed out as the beers appeared in front of them. She grabbed her bottle and took a huge swig. It had been one of those days and a beer or two to take the edge off would be nice. As she swallowed the cold beverage, she thought about the night's events and sighed. "You shouldn't have jumped in you know."

The white ranger did not indicate whom she was talking to, but Kim knew. "I had to. I couldn't let you guys take all the crap when I'm just as guilty." She understood what they were trying to do for her, but it was not fair to them and as their friend, she was not going to let them stand-alone.

"You know Tommy's gonna hate us for a while." Jason said as he took a swig of his beer.

"Us being us." Carri pointed out, gesturing to herself and Jason. "Kim he'll forgive. They are sleeping together."

"Just because we're sleeping together doesn't mean he's going to be quick to forgive me." Kim replied. Although more than likely, he would not hold a grudge against her as long. After all, he had no idea what she'd been up to regarding her powers and he was well aware that she kept her secrets and he still wanted to marry her. She took a sip of beer before continuing. "I'm sorry about Rocky."

Carri simply shrugged in response. "He knows I've kept secrets for you guys for years. If he is going to equate the level of the secret I keep with trusting him, we have an issue there." She thought it was complete crap to say that by not betraying the trust of her friends, she did not trust him. She had a feeling it really had to do with Jason and that he would get over it, but only time would tell.

There was silence for a moment as the three of them sat there drinking. Finally, Jason continued the conversation. "I hope Tommy knows this doesn't change anything. I'm going to do what I do, I don't give a damn what mister high and mighty thinks."

"I don't think he actually thinks he'll change what you're doing. I think he wants acknowledgements that he is right and we are wrong and apologies to try to work something out." Kim said. She knew Tommy well, and she knew Tommy knew Jason well. He did not think he expected his friend to change. Of course, she was not sure if he really thought that either Carri or Jason would call him right or apologize. They were all stubborn.

"He can wait until hell freezes over." Carri said with a snort. There was no way she was apologizing to Tommy for this.

"I second that." Jason said gesturing as the bartender walked over. "I need three shots of Patron." The bartender walked off and filled up the glasses, returning them to Jason who passed them out. "If there was ever a night for a shot, it would be tonight." He said as he pushed the glasses in their direction. Neither were usually shot takers, but tonight they should make an exception. It wasn't like either wanted to go home and face the pissed off rangers waiting for them anyway.

Carri glanced down at the tequila in front of her. She was not one for shots, and she refused to get drunk. However, there had been so much crap going on lately. She glanced over at Kim and shrugged. One shot certainly would not hurt anything. Who knows, maybe she'd take one and it would be just what she needed to go to bed and get a good night's sleep. She raised her glass. "What the hell." She said as Kim sighed and she and Jason joined her. The three of them tossed their glasses back. Just one shot of tequila isn't bad. What is the worst that could happen?


	12. Fallout

**Disclaimer:** All PR related characters belong to Saban. Any reference to K, the Novas, the DG or Thomas are references to KSuzie's world and those characters belong to her. All other characters belong to me.  
**Author's Note:** For those who haven't heard already, I became a mommy this past summer which is why my fics have suffered. During the rare moments when I'm not busy and there is silence in the house, I am back to writing, so chapters will be coming, although slower than usual. Thank you to all my readers who have been patiently waiting for the next chapter to arrive.  
Thank you to Andros Dorian, who helped me brainstorm the bit about Jen, also to hewhoreaps for continuing to help edit my stories and for the idea for the chapter title.

Dark Inheritance  
"Fallout"

There was a loud noise coming from a place the white ranger could not pinpoint. She lazily opened one eye and noticed that she was wearing her spaghetti strap undershirt and underwear with someone's arm draped over her. She let out a snort as she turned her attention toward the noise.

It took her a second to realize it was her phone ringing from the night table. She reached over to get it, bits and pieces of the previous night coming back to her as she did. "Hello?" she mumbled as she pulled the phone up to her ear.

"There you are." A voice spoke sharply in her ear. "Some of us were wondering if you were ever getting up and coming to work." Carri was supposed to have been on set an hour ago.

Carri let out a grunt as she glanced over at the hotel's alarm clock, looking at the big red numbers that read ten am. "It was a rough night." She replied. She knew Brian, her assistant producer, was getting ready to ask for all the details. It was all right with her, she would humor him as much as she was in the mood to. She really liked Brian. He worked his ass off and did an amazing job. He was probably going to get a good portion of the responsibility on her show when she started working on her new one.

"Rough night hmm?" Brian questioned a teasing tone in his voice. "Is that good rough or bad rough?"

"I don't know." Carri said a smile spreading across her face as she woke up a bit more. "I woke up next to Kim so." She stopped and shrugged.

"Somebody party too hard and decide to do a little bit of experimenting?" he questioned with a laugh.

Carri could not help but laugh as well, and as she did Kim stirred, removing her arm and rolling over to the other side of the bed. "I wouldn't call it a party. Maybe a pity party. And there was no experimenting. Just two drunken women sleeping in a hotel bed together."

"Too bad." Brian replied. "You know if that was my thing I'd be right over."

"I'm sure you would." She said with a snort. "I'm sure Jason's around here somewhere if you want to come check it out."

"If we didn't have work to be done, I'd be right there. Although I'm sure I missed out on all the fun stuff last night." Brian pointed out. Jason was a good-looking man and it was too bad that he would never be interested.

"Fun. Right." Carri said. Last night was not her idea of fun. She sighed as she thought about it, and then pushed it aside for the moment so she could respond. "Let me call room service and get some food, coffee and aspirin. Lots of aspirin. I am halfway there so I should make it in by noon. See if you can't get someone to hunt me down clean clothes and just leave them in my office."

Brian chuckled. "Will do." He replied. With most people, he would question their competence at this point. With Carri, he was used to her coming and going weird hours, disappearing without notice, and other bizarre behavior. He did not mind, he liked working for her. She was good at what she did and he got an awesome paycheck every week so he didn't have much to complain about.

"See you in a few." She said before hanging up her phone. She tossed it back onto the table before letting out a groan and rubbing her temples.

There was a reason she never got drunk. She hated getting drunk. She hated losing control, she hated the throwing up, and she hated the morning after. She was certainly one to indulge in a drink or two, but she had not been drunk since she was twenty-one. She thought about it for a moment. It was the same culprit last time as it was this time.

It had been the weekend after Valentine's Day. She and Jason were the only two of the former rangers who had already turned twenty-one and they were taking the newly of age Kim out to celebrate. That night had gone pretty much the same way last night went. Every time she looked down, Jason had bought another shot, then he would guilt trip them into drinking it. Before she and Kim knew what was going on, the three of them were so drunk they hardly made it out to the parking lot before throwing up. She swore it was the last time she would ever drink that much. Last night had not been that bad, but it was enough to make her pay for it this morning.

The only other time she had been drunk had been her twenty-first birthday. This time it was Josh taking her to Las Vegas. She could not figure out why every male in her life that she called brother wanted to see her smashed beyond recognition. Las Vegas had been a mess. Although she was told she had a blast, she knew it involved gambling too much money away and her acting like a complete and total drunken fool. That was the first time she had ever paid much attention to the phrase "what happens in Vegas".

Carri glanced over at the red ranger. If she was going to order breakfast, she needed to know what the other woman wanted. She nudged her softly, and when Kim did not wake up, she gave her a good shove.

Kim jumped out of a deep sleep and sat straight up. She glanced over at Carri, pushing the hair out of her face that had fallen down over night. As she looked at her friend, she noticed the numbers on the clock. "Shit!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Carri asked, the thought that one of them actually had a real work schedule not occurring to her.

"I'm two hours late." Kim said in a panic. "Sandy's going to kill me after she has Ashley fire me."

"Relax." Carri said as she thought about it. "You're Muirantian. Just teleport yourself home really early in the morning, get dressed, sneak out, and get to work on time."

"That's a total misuse of my powers." Kim was quick to point out. Although she doubted that the DG was really going to care if she used her powers to get to work on time. It is not as if her making it to work would change the fate of her world.

"Who's going to tell on you?" Carri questioned, not seeing the big deal. If it was her she'd do it. They were only talking about two hours here.

"You're right." Kim said before flopping back onto the pillows. She could not afford to lose her job. She was not sure at this moment if she had a fiancé waiting for her at home. If he left, she would be stuck with the mortgage on the house all by herself.

"I know." Carri said with a smirk. "Now before you go I'm ordering breakfast, coffee, and tons of aspirin so maybe we can all think straight today."

"I don't need any aspirin." Kim assured her. When Carri looked at her curiously, Kim elaborated. "Muirantian, remember?" While she had been pretty happy the night before, her body metabolized the alcohol and pushed it out quickly. She had been completely sober for hours; she should have gotten up a long time ago. She just had not been ready to face the day. Well face Tommy. She knew if she got up she would have to go home and she just could not deal with that yet. It was her fault she overslept. "I'll take breakfast though." She quickly added. She was starving.

"Good. I will call Jason and see if he wants anything. We'll eat and everybody can get to work." Carri said as she reached for her phone. She knew Jason was there somewhere. She remembered him checking in with her.

"Sounds good." Kim said as she pulled the covers back up over herself. She would take a few minutes to enjoy breakfast. Then it was back to the stressors she was trying to avoid. Would she be ok at work that day? Would she be able to get all the coins working properly? Where was Arius, and would Jakar be back anytime soon. Most importantly, how was she going to mend things with Tommy? Could she, or was he going to hate her forever?

Kim sighed as she listened to Carri's end of her conversation with Jason. Yup, there were definitely plenty of reasons for her to just lay here all day with the covers overher head. Maybe she was stressing too much. Maybe the day would not be that bad after all.

* * *

Dr. Manx sat in her lab, working hard on one of the suggestions her boss had given her. This job had turned out to be a lot of hard work, a lot of trial and error, and she loved it. She had started out on smaller projects, things like weaponry. She thought those were Billy's way of testing her. If they had been, she passed with flying colors.

The handheld weapons worked wonderfully, and one of the suits she created Billy was contemplating modifying to give to the rangers. It was a tactical high-grade weaponry addition for law enforcement. With a few adjustments it could make for an amazing addition to a morphed ranger. However, they were not sure that the Planetary team's morphers would allow for that kind of adjustment. If the morphers were manmade, it would have been easy.

Ranger technology was not why she was hired though, she was hired to bring projects to life for law enforcement and so far, Billy was pleased with the job she was doing. Not that she didn't want to work on ranger technology. Should the opportunity arise, she would certainly jump on it. She missed doing ranger specific things for NASADA. For the moment though there was not too much to be done for the rangers and what came up was certainly nothing Billy could not handle. She hoped though that if the opportunity arose, he would not hesitate to ask for her help.

She turned her focus back to the project she was working on and absentmindedly tugged on her ear as she thought. A knock at the lab door brought her back out of thinking mode, and she turned to see Billy enter. She chuckled to herself. Every time he knocked, it amused her. He was the only one with access to the lab and he was her boss. He did not have to knock, yet he always announced himself. It was not as if she was doing anything in there he could not see.

Billy walked through the door and paused, waiting for it to shut behind him. Once he was satisfied that nobody would be following him in, he went to approach Kat. "How is the project going?" he questioned. He was coming to check on her, something he did not have to do often. Hiring her was the best decision he had made. She was brilliant, and had no trouble taking his suggestions and running with them. The latest idea involved a system to detain criminals for transport.

"Good." Kat said as she reached over and picked up a small device. It was five inches long and three inches thick. It was a bit bulkier than she had imagined but it was only a prototype.

"What's this?" Billy questioned. He had tasked her with making some sort of handcuff, something that a criminal would not be able to pick their way out of and escape from.

Kat smiled at him. She was hoping that he would be pleased with the way she took the idea and ran with it. "You wanted a system that a criminal couldn't escape from. A handcuff has too many variables. Even with securing it, they could still try to escape or have someone on the outside help them."

"So this device is some sort of substitute for simply binding a criminal?" Billy questioned as he reached out and took the device from her hands and started examining it.

"This device uses data cards." Kat started her explanation. She had gotten the idea from ranger technology. She wanted to improve on it and make it ultra-compact, but this was a start. "It will scan the criminal and pull them in, placing them on a data card. This will make it easy to transport them, and it will be easy to reverse to deal with the criminal however the system deems necessary."

Billy thought about it for a moment as he stared at her device. "That's brilliant." He finally spoke. He wished he had thought of the idea himself. He knew that data cards worked well for pulling people on and off. They had seen them used against the Space rangers in the fight against Astronema years ago. He had to admit, he was impressed that she had thought to put that technology into this little device. It was much better than what he asked her to do.

"Thank you." Kat said, quite pleased with herself. She was thrilled that Billy liked the direction she took his suggestion.

"Send me the design specs for this." Billy said as he handed the device back to her. He wanted to see what she had done, see if he could offer up any suggestions to make it better.

"Will do." She assured him as she took it back and set it on the table.

"Is it ready for a human test?" he questioned. He was not sure whom he could test it on. Probably himself, although he might be able to get Kim to let them test it on her since she is Muirantian; if something went wrong in all likelihood, she would be fine.

"Not yet." Kat replied. She had not gotten into the testing phase yet. She wanted to make sure it was perfect first. "I'll certainly let you know when we can test it out on a human subject." She promised. She hoped it would not be more than a week before she was ready to see if it can be put to good use.

"Keep working on it then and keep me informed." Billy said. That was the only project he wanted her doing now. There was no hurry to get everything done and he would rather have a perfect project done before moving on to another.

She nodded briefly as she watched Billy turn and head back toward the door. She did not intend to work on anything else now. She wanted to perfect her creation. She even had some ideas for adding to it, like some sort of biometric system that can tell whether they were trapping the criminal they should be. That was being ignored for the moment. For now, she was going to work on the system and get it working properly and streamlined more to where she wanted it.

The door to her lab slid open and shut as Billy exited. Once he was gone, she turned her focus back to her work.

* * *

It was lunchtime in southern California, and Rocky found himself an hour south of Angel Grove, about halfway between his home and San Diego. He was pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant he was meeting Aisha at for lunch.

He had made the lunch date with his friend last week and he was glad that he did. He needed to talk to someone, to get his mind off of what happened the night before. He was still frustrated with Carri for keeping that secret from him. He wanted her to talk to him about it; he wanted her to understand where he was coming from.

She had not gotten it yesterday, but they had not really gotten to talk. Yesterday in the Command Chamber had been a blowout, and he ended up being her secondary concern. Tommy was the focus of most of her attention. The silver ranger was furious, and showed no signs of calming down after they left.

With all that commotion going on he was not able to talk to Carri. He wanted to have a serious conversation with her; after all, they were supposed to be getting married soon. He was hoping he could talk to her that night at home but she never showed up. He had no idea where she went and he did not bother calling.

He knew better than to call her. If she picked up, he would only get an earful. She had a rough day in general, and the three of them had probably gone to blow off some steam. He was somewhat hurt that she had disappeared with Jason all night. Despite his jealousy, he trusted her concerning that part of hers and Jason's relationship. In the nearly twelve years they have been friends, neither one ever had the slightest romantic interest in the other.

He sighed as he parked and got out of the car, heading for the front door. As he walked, he noticed Aisha's car in the parking lot. The former yellow ranger had beaten him there. It was no surprise; he had been off to a slow start all day.

He walked into the door and was immediately greeted by the hostess. Before he could say anything, he spotted Aisha and spoke briefly to the host before heading over toward her table. "Hey." He greeted as he approached.

"Hey Rocky." Aisha said. She stood and leaned over to give him a hug before they both sat. She was thrilled to get to see him again. Even though they lived in the same state, they did not get to see each other as often as she would like. She supposed she should be happy. Adam they did not see at all, not unless he was out there for work related business. Rocky had seen him on the rare occasion they were both needed for something ranger related, but she held firmly that ranger related time together did not count.

"Sorry I'm late." Rocky apologized as he sat.

She grinned at him. "I was beginning to think Tommy rubbed off on you." She teased. He really was not that late, and given what the traffic could be like, she would not consider him late at all.

The mention of Tommy brought the thoughts from the previous night that he was trying to push aside back to the surface and he made a face. Aisha noticed the look quickly. "Something wrong?" she questioned. He made a face when she said Tommy. She did not think he had gotten into it with him but who knew.

Rocky opened his mouth to say no, but he changed his mind. He did not have anybody to talk to when it came to Carri. He and Tommy had not had conversations like that since college, and although he talked to Jason back then they were never that close. His two best friends did not live in the same city as him anymore and so he never really talked to anybody.

"You ever hear of Luke Kirk?" he asked, figuring it was best to start the story there. He was going to bust Jason's secret to Aisha, but then again he never swore to keep it a secret. Besides, he had been ousted in the Command Chamber among rangers. The ranger community was a small one, things got around fast.

"As in world famous, can't turn on the TV without hearing about him author Luke Kirk?" Aisha questioned, raising an eyebrow. Who had not heard of Luke Kirk? The man had one series that was successful in the science fiction community, and now he had a totally new sci-fi series, the first two books of which were a massive mainstream success.

"That would be the one." Rocky replied with a chuckle. He supposed it had been a stupid question.

"What about him?" she asked, curious as to where this was going and what it had to do with Tommy.

"Apparently Kim and Carri knew who Luke Kirk is, and they've been keeping it a secret for the last year and a half." He continued.

"No." she said with a surprised look, her eyes growing wide. Actually seeing Luke Kirk was one thing the media talked about constantly. She did know that Ausus Productions was making Luke Kirk's movie, so she supposed it made sense that Carri knew. The thought occurred to her that maybe Tommy was Luke Kirk. It did not really make any sense that it was Tommy; he had so much on his plate already. However, it would explain how Ausus Productions got the job in the first place.

"It's the original tyrannosaurs." He said somewhat quietly. He was trying to be cryptic in case someone overheard him. He did not want to say Jason's name out loud. No matter how pissed he was about everything, he was not going to risk that bit of information getting out to the public.

"Seriously?" Aisha questioned with a squeal. She got the reference immediately. She did not know Jason that well, she never served with him, but it was cool that the author was someone from their group. Jason, or Luke Kirk, was the hottest thing on the planet right now.

Rocky gave her a slight nod. "So we all found out last night because Tommy spied on Carri." He explained. "Tommy is furious because Kim knew and lied to him about it. He thought he had every right to know." He stopped there, not wanting to go into why in the restaurant. He could explain that part to Aisha later. "He's not the only one who's pissed. My fiancé kept this huge important secret from me. It's like she didn't trust me to tell me."

"So she's been lying to you about it this whole time?" Aisha questioned. That did not seem fair. Tommy and Rocky had every right to be pissed.

"Well," Rocky paused as he thought about it. She never lied to him, as he never asked her about Luke Kirk. He always assumed she did not know the man, nobody outside of his publisher did. "Technically she never lied about it. She just didn't tell me about it."

"So you're mad because she kept a secret?" Aisha questioned. That was actually better than flat out lying about it. Everyone had their secrets. Growing up with Rocky and Adam, she could probably fill a box full of their secrets.

"I'm mad because she couldn't trust me not to tell anyone. I'm mad because she acts like she has some sort of loyalty to Jason over me." Rocky explained himself. They were going to get married. What kind of life would they have together if she could not trust him enough to share everything?

Aisha made a noise of agreement as she thought about it. "Not that I'm picking sides, but Jason did ask her to keep it a secret. Do you know how many secrets you and Adam have kept for me over the years?"

"That's different." Rocky said. "It's not the same situation." He added.

"We go way back. Before I left for Africa we were just as close as Carri and Jason." Aisha pointed out. She knew what kind of relationship those two had. She considered Adam and Rocky her brothers, she just had not been able to stay as close as she would have liked over the years.

"True." Rocky agreed. He had not thought about it but she was right. He was not sure what Carri would think of his and Aisha's relationship if she had known them when the three of them were inseparable.

"So then if I told you I was really some famous author and asked you to not tell anybody, would you keep my secret?" she questioned. She was really hoping the answer was yes, if not she would be disappointed in her friend.

Rocky thought about it for a moment. He certainly would not go around telling people. Would he have told Carri? He did not think he would have simply blabbed about it. If it had come up, he did not think he would be able to lie to her. However, he doubted he would freely offer up the information. "I get your point." He said in response. He was still somewhat upset, but he got it. Maybe when Carri finally showed up back home they could have a civilized discussion about it.

"Good." Aisha said as their waiter approached the table. "Now let's order some lunch and have some fun and not worry about that anymore."

"Deal." Rocky replied with a grin as he opened his menu and started to peer through it.

* * *

Jason sat in the back corner of the set that was currently filming his movie along with his girlfriend. They were waiting for Carri so he could have access to the entire set to show Emily around. He thought he should be able to do it himself, however her security did not agree and she had not shown her face yet. It did not seem fair that it was his movie and he was restricted access. Of course that was the way it had to be if he was going to continue to pretend he was not Luke Kirk.

He hoped people did not know he was Luke Kirk. He did not think Tommy was pissed off enough to spill that secret. After all, if Tommy did people would start suspecting the stories that came from a man from Angel Grove. People might wonder if he came up with that stuff because he had firsthand experience, and there would be someone out there smart enough to derive a conclusion.

Between the argument with Tommy and that afterthought that followed, he needed to get drunk last night. Getting Kim and Carri drunk had been a bonus. He did not think they would keep taking shots, but they were both beyond pissed and by the time they realized how much he had given them, it was too late. He found it rather funny.

Of course, Carri was not too amused when she called him that morning but he knew the difference between when she was really pissed and when she was just acting like it. This morning she was acting, she never would have offered him breakfast otherwise.

"Well this is an interesting tour." Emily commented. Today was her Friday off. She met Jason in LA for a late lunch, and then he offered to let her see the movie studio. She was excited; she had never been on a set before. They got there and they had to wait for security to get a hold of Carri to approve of her coming in. Then they were ushered onto the back of the set and they would not let them wonder around any further, despite the fact that some of the people, including the assistant producer, recognized Jason. Apparently Carri had been specific that nothing went down without her approval as some of the things on the set they were trying to keep secret.

Jason chuckled as he reached over and put an arm around her, pulling her into him. "I'm sure she'll be out here soon. She stays pretty busy normally, I'm sure it doesn't help that she's moving a little slow today."

Emily simply shook her head in response. She knew that Jason had gotten drunk last night with Kim and Carri because of a fight the three of them had gotten into with Tommy. Although Jason had not been able to go into many details about the fight in the restaurant, she knew he spied and found out what he really did for a living.

"You sure she's not ignoring you as her way of saying thanks?" she questioned with a smirk.

"Nah. She's over that." Jason replied. "Besides she wouldn't leave you hanging just to get back at me." At least he did not think she would. She did not hate Emily anymore. They were not friends like they had been, but he didn't expect that.

Emily made a face suggesting she did not quite believe him and he continued. "Trust me if she wants to get back at me she will. It will be something grand, and I'll know it when she does it." Something like strike him with lightning, much like she did Tommy a few weeks ago.

"True." Emily said as she thought for a moment. Before she could continue, the white ranger popped in from around the corner.

"Hey guys." She greeted. "Sorry I'm late."

"What did you think you were accomplishing by making me wait?" Jason asked in a gruff tone, although the smile on his face gave him away.

She rolled her eyes in response. "Please, like everything is about you." She said as they stood. "I've been on the phone with TMZ for the last hour." After that conversation, she was almost pissed enough for another shot of tequila.

"Shit." Jason said with feeling. Carri had filled him in on that whole debacle the night before. She had gone on a long rant about how Christian was an ass, and how if she ever saw him again she was going to kick the crap out of him.

Carri snorted. "Yeah that about covers it."

"So they are still backing the douche?" Jason questioned. He could not imagine she could not straighten things out with the tabloid. Then again, they weren't exactly known for their integrity.

"Oh no, the team of lawyers on their ass got them to change their mind about that." Her father had a damn good law firm on his side. They always got their way. They should for what he paid them. "However they negotiated that they get my side. Which is fine, but they spent an hour interviewing me and their questions weren't exactly all appropriate." Some of the things they asked really had nothing to do with the event in question and some were none of their damn business.

"Knowing you, you answered their questions just as appropriately." Jason said as she made a face. Knowing her, they probably could not print half the answers she gave.

"I gave them an earful." She assured him, watching as he snickered in response. "Now they want to interview my employees, the witnesses." She said with a huff. "They are going to try and grill them on Luke Kirk, so now I have to take time out of my day to coordinate this and make sure this goes smoothly and everybody keeps their damn mouths shut. I swear if I ever cross paths with that boy again…"

Her voice trailed off as her eyes flashed with anger. Jason tried not to snicker, he didn't want any of her anger shifted toward him. "Let's get this tour on the road." He said, changing the subject entirely. He did not want to discuss TMZ or Christian anymore. He wanted to finish here so he could take Emily home to his hot tub.

"Let's." she said. She was done discussing it anyway. It was just pissing her off and she had wasted more than enough energy in the last two days being pissed off at that insignificant prick. She put a smile on her face as she pushed that out of her mind. "Follow me." She said as she gestured for them to join her.

Emily smiled at Jason as she put her hand around his waist and the two of them headed off to follow Carri around the set.

* * *

Jen sat in the tiny office that she shared with two other people listening to the woman in front of her go on and on and on. She smiled and tried to stay focused, but as much as she appreciated what she was saying, she had said it ten different ways already and she wanted her to wrap it up.

Shelly, the woman talking to her, smiled, her chipper persona not wavering as she spoke again. "So I just wanted you to know that. You have made me a more confident person. And, you know, I think I can go out into the world and feel safe."

Jen watched as her head bobbed up and down while she talked. She did not think Shelly was too bright; at least that is how she was coming across in her office.

"And you know safety is important. I owe you for that. So thank you."

She finished that sentence and Jen sensed she was getting ready to start again. She tried to cut her off before she could. "I appreciate that. Thank you for coming to talk to me. I hate to rush you out, but I have work to do before the next class."

"Of course!" she exclaimed. Shelly jumped up and ran over to Jen, throwing her arms around her. "Thank you again Kate. It means so much to me." She said, dragging out the word so. She then turned and bounced out of the office.

Jen let out a sigh of relief as she leaned back in her chair. She liked what she was doing, she really did. She was teaching self-defense classes at the YMCA. Her classes were mostly women, but she had some men in there too.

Her classes were more than just how women could stop a predator; they were about how to defend yourself in any situation, which is why she got men in her classes as well. As the wife of the head of the Silver Guardians, she was also teaching ways to survive should one get caught in the middle of a monster attack. In Silver Hills, those kinds of lessons were high in demand.

It drove her nuts that they credited Wes with anything they learned about surviving attacks. She was Time Force. She was a ranger before him. She could teach him a thing or two. However, she had to smile, nod, and pretend she learned from Wes. She could not let on she knew more than she did. She had to stay in the background to make sure she was nothing more than an insignificant dot in history. Her life literally depended on it.

That was why her job was teaching self-defense at the Y. Teachers at the Y did not exactly stick out in history. It was something where she could use her skills, yet still be anonymous. In theory, Time Force would never see her here; never pay attention to someone who taught self-defense classes. She had a better chance of getting caught as a ranger, but she had faith that Kim was going to help her keep that secret. Her mentor would have never pushed her to stay in the past if she thought her past self was not going to be able to help her keep that secret.

This was not what she really wanted to do though. Although she enjoyed her job, she was trained as Time Force. She wanted to be an officer of some sort. However, the police, Silver Guardians, FBI, any of those organizations were out of the question. She could not even train to do something different, something else that could give her that same rush like firefighting.

Anything that would make her a first responder was a risk. If she did something that others considered noteworthy – save a life or stop a crime – she might get recognition. Recognition meant that her name, and possibly her picture would be recorded in history. It would be out there in the records for Time Force to see. If one of her superiors stumbled across it in the future, they would travel back and get her.

Not only would she lose Wes, she would change the timeline by not being here to do what she was supposed to do in the first place. If that was not motivation enough, there was not anything but prison waiting for her in the future. She had abandoned her post at Time Force, not to mention she disobeyed a direct order not to return to the past. She would be ushered into a cell and held there until trial, where she'd be found guilty as charged. It would not be like when the team ignored Alex and returned. That they were forgiven for. Ransik was still in the past and they had to take care of him before history changed itself.

They would not understand that she was supposed to be here. Perhaps the time guardian could step in and help make that point, but that was not a guarantee. First, if she was not here to fill out the team, would Arius win? If he won, would her mentor still be there in the future, or would she have turned into Kemora, pursued by other forces of good throughout time and space. Second, she was not always on her home world. Because of who she was, Kim often spent time on other planets or in other dimensions. There was a good chance she would be in jail for a long time before Kim realized what was going on, if she ever did.

Jen sighed as the door opened and one of the other instructors walked in. "Don't you have a class to teach?" Bobby, the fitness instructor, asked as he walked in and collapsed in a chair. He was looking forward to lounging for a few minutes before he had to go back out there.

She glanced down at her watch. It was almost time for her next class to start. She needed to forget about Time Force and head back out there. "I do." She replied as she pulled herself up. She put a smile on her face as she headed toward the door. "See you later." She said, giving him a wave as she headed back out to work.

* * *

Arius wandered the streets of Ocean Bluff. He was alone for the moment, but that would change once he found his targets. He did not want to alarm anyone here yet. He could slip by under the radar, but bring along any of his minions and not only would this ranger team be alerted, but Kaycea would most likely notice his presence as well.

He knew where they had spent most of their day, but he had received a message that they had left and headed out toward the woods. It was just as well. He just passed the building they seemed to hang out at. It was a little place called Jungle Karma Pizza. Had he gone after them there, he would have made quite the scene. Of course, Kaycea could not stop him at that point, but he did not want to give her a heads up until he was ready.

As he moved quickly to intercept the rangers, he thought about the fact that they spent their lives at a pizza parlor. It was odd to him that rangers held jobs and tried to live normal lives. From what he could gather about the Planetary team, most of them considered their Earth jobs secondary to their ranger duties. It was still odd, but he could accept that. This team, from the information Shax had gathered, seemed to spend all of their time at the pizza place.

It made him wonder if they had skills worthy of working for him. Just because someone strapped on a morpher did not mean they were a worthwhile ranger. He had seen what happened to mediocre rangers on other planets. Earth seemed to be some sort of odd exception. Rangers from this world banded together to defeat people he never thought would go down. A good portion of them met their demise right around the same time Dark Specter did, but even after that they had taken on some powerful villains and won. There were whispers among other planets that this planet held the caliber rangers that could defeat Emperor Grumm should their paths ever cross. He did not think they stood a chance, and he figured all those whispers would stop once he finished his job here.

Still, to have other worlds falsely believe in that garbage said something about the kinds of rangers coming out of Earth. Rangers whose lives were not even dedicated to their task, they were about mundane Earth problems that held no value in the grand scheme of things.

He simply shook his head as he navigated through the woods. He supposed he did not have to understand them to defeat them. Shrugging those thoughts off, he made his way to a clearing where he found his targets. "Hello." He called out to them, trying to sound somewhat friendly.

The trio jerked their heads in his direction. The red one immediately stepped forward. "Hello." He replied cautiously. "Can I help you?"

"I'm here to ask for your assistance." Arius replied. He figured it could not hurt to ask. He doubted they would willingly join him but he would give it a shot. Otherwise, he would have to do this the hard way. Not that he minded, but he wanted to save the time.

"Oh." The one in yellow said as she smiled at him. "What can we help you with?"

"I'm in the middle of a fight, and my forces are proving to be too incompetent to win. I just need you to step in for a little while and work with my people to do whatever is necessary to defeat my opponent." He said, leaving out for the moment that his opponents were another ranger team, led by a Muirantian.

"I think you have the wrong people." The one in blue said as he gave him a half smile. "We know a few moves but I don't think we can help you fight."

He sighed. Rangers of this world and their secrecy were beyond him. On most worlds, rangers were revered. He had even seen statues put up, some of which he had the pleasure of destroying. "You are the Power Rangers, aren't you?"

"How did you know that?" the one in red asked. The three of them shifted stances, and it was obvious they were ready for whatever was going to happen next.

"How I knew doesn't matter." Arius assured the trio. "What matters is that you bring your ranger skills to work for me."

"We are busy with Dai Shi at the moment." Their leader said, trying to blow him off. "Maybe you can find another team of rangers to help you."

"That's the problem." Arius told him. "There is only one other team of rangers that is active on this planet, and they are the ones I want to get rid of."

That went over about as well as he thought it would. The rangers reached for their morphers, and within seconds, a group of Keresecks materialized and grabbed them, keeping them from doing anything.

"You'll just have to come with me and I'll convince you to assist me while we are aboard my ship." Arius said. By convince, he meant use a little bit of magic. The magic was going to take a while to consume them. It was definitely more of a sure thing for them to simply agree to assist him. However, he had Deimos waiting for results, he wanted to do this quickly and bring Kaycea to him. He was not going to get another chance.

"Never!" the red ranger yelled out.

"You don't have a choice." Arius replied, and seconds later, he and the Jungle Fury team were teleported to his ship.

* * *

Kim sat in her living room, waiting for Tommy to come home. She had been dreading this conversation all day and it was almost here. She had done her best to avoid it earlier. There was no way she was talking to him that morning.

Instead of teleporting herself home at the time she would normally get up, she teleported home when she knew Tommy would be gone. Then she showered and got ready for work. Once she was done, she grabbed everything she needed and teleported herself directly to her car at an earlier point in the morning. She was sitting at her desk working while her past self, at least she supposed that was the best thing to call it, was passed out in a hotel bed with Carri.

She had tried to work hard all day, but she kept getting distracted. First, it was by the fact that she was in two places at that moment in time. She had to keep her fingers crossed that Thomas would not stop by or that the DG would not notice. It was a trivial thing, her bending time to get to work; still she figured it will be frowned upon. She would have gladly faced the consequences if she had been punished for saving Trini. This, not so much.

After the time past when she left the hotel room, when she was the only version of herself on this world in this time, she relaxed a bit, until she remembered why she was in the hotel in the first place. Then she realized she was going to have to talk to Tommy tonight, like it or not. First, they were still rangers together and still both reds. Second, and most importantly to her, she was going to marry him. Assuming, of course, they could get past this argument.

She sighed as the front door opened, and she knew, like it or not, it was time. She sat on the couch, her eyes focused on the direction Tommy would be coming from. She was not going to back down from this. Jason and Carri had given her the easy out. She did not want to take it. She was going to own up to her decisions. Hopefully it didn't mean the end of her relationship.

Tommy headed into the living room and saw Kim sitting on the couch. He made eye contact with her and spoke. "Hello." He said his voice void of emotion. He was not going to dive into anything just yet. They needed to talk about Luke Kirk. He wanted to talk about where the three of them took off to last night. Of course, that could be a completely new argument and he trusted that she did not do anything he would not approve of, so he was going to leave that be for now.

"Hello." She replied, the same tone in her voice. She thought for a moment, and then decided to start small. "Sorry I didn't come home last night. Carri and I had a few too many drinks, we stayed in a hotel."

"That's fine." He replied ignoring the fact that she was Muirantian, which meant she probably did not really get that drunk and she could have teleported herself home at any time. He also ignored the part where Jason was most likely drinking with them.

Tommy did not add anything else. He was waiting to see if she would open up and apologize for other things. When she did not speak, he continued. "That's not the part of last night I'm really angry about, although don't get me wrong, I'm not thrilled with you disappearing all night either." Not that he minded, he was not sure things were going to go too well at home had she come back to sleep in their bed.

"I know." Kim said simply, debating on what to say next. She knew how she felt about the situation; she had all day to think about it. She supposed that at this point the only thing left to do was let him know. "I'm sorry I lied to you."

"You knew who Luke Kirk was the entire time I was asking about it." Tommy said, glad that she had at least opened it up with an apology. "You kept that secret from me."

"I'm not sorry about keeping the secret. Jason and I have been close since long before I met you." Kim was quick to correct him. She did not want him thinking that she regretted keeping Jason's secret. He had been like her brother for longer than she could remember; she would not betray his trust, not even to Tommy. "I should have handled it differently. I should have never pretended not to know anything."

Tommy was confused. He understood, somewhat, why she kept Jason's secret. However, he did not see any way to deal with his direct questions other than either lying or telling the truth. If she regrets lying, she only had one other option. "How else do you think you could have handled it?"

"Honestly," Kim paused for a second as she thought about it, "I would have told you that things were under control, and that I knew enough. At that point I would have had to force Jason to fill you in." That answer would have pissed Tommy off, but if she made Jason tell things would have gone better.

"And you think he would have told me?" Tommy questioned, raising an eyebrow. He could not see Kim bullying Jason into giving up his secret.

Kim shrugged. "If I pressured him enough." She replied. She could probably force him to tell Tommy. Anonymity was important to him, but it was Tommy, he was an encyclopedia of ranger secrets, he could keep one more. Of course, Jason did not want him knowing because he did not want him riding his butt about turning his adventures into adventures in books or anything else. "I didn't think it was important enough to pressure him into telling you. I am this team's red ranger, and I know all about his books. I don't see where there is enough in there to compromise us in any way. Maybe former rangers can figure it out, but let's be fair, they have the inside track."

"I agree you're this team's red ranger. However, I am still the senior red on the planet. I should have been informed." Tommy quickly pointed out.

"I'm not going to argue that you are the senior red on the planet. All the other reds look up to you; I've seen it when we have all met to discuss new threats. Still, that doesn't mean you have to know every secret about everything that goes on in the ranger community." Kim told him. She would acknowledge his seniority. However, it had its limits and it did not apply to this team. "Plus this is my team. You keep butting into leadership decisions, but anything involving this team on and off the battlefield you should defer to me first. I've held these powers for over a year, before you were on the team, and I'm intergallactically recognized as a red leader."

"I'm not challenging your ability as a red. I'm responsible for all the teams on Earth, sometimes I make decisions based on what I think is best." He said. He looked at her; he could tell she was skeptical, that she did not understand. He did not know if he wanted to tell her the story. He had never said this to anyone; he had just held it close and followed orders. However if she was going to understand where he was coming from, he had to tell her.

"I've never told anyone this before." He said as he finally walked over and sat down next to her on the couch. "I've always suspected Zordon knew what his future could hold. I think he knew that Dark Specter was mobilizing his forces, and that Astronema was on her way. In the last few months, we discussed the future of the rangers quite a few times. One of the things he said was that as his red ranger, Earth and its ranger teams were mine to look after."

Kim looked at him curiously and he continued. "At the time I thought he just wanted to make sure I'd continue to help him out long after I'd retired. Looking back, I know that he was making sure his work here on Earth would not go to waste, that someone he trusted would always keep an eye out on the planet. I have done my best over the years to follow his wishes. I have silently kept up with all the other teams. I have banded the red rangers from each team together to make sure the planet's rangers were united in case something happened. I've even stepped in when needed."

"So you were essentially following Zordon's orders?" Kim questioned, watching as he nodded his head yes. "I understand what you're doing, but I think Zordon would agree that I am capable of at the very least taking care of this conflict and this team while you serve as my second." Dulcea always told her how she would have made Zordon proud. He would have been pleased that the feisty little pink he recruited all those years ago matured into a damn fine red.

"I think he would. It is still hard for me to relinquish control." Tommy replied. He had never served with this group and not been in charge.

"I get it, I do, but maybe we can work on it?" Kim asked, watching as Tommy somewhat nodded. "And what about this thing with Jason?"

"I'm still not happy about it. And I have a bone to pick with Carri and Jason." By bone to pick, he meant he still needed to rip them a new one. He understood why Kim felt justified lying to him. He was not happy about it, but he understood. The two of them, that is a different story entirely. "I think, however, you and I can call a truce for now."

Kim let out the breath that she did not know she had been holding. "Good. I'm glad." She said as she smiled at him. "Now I need to go check out the progress we made last night with the coins and see about finishing that up. Care to join me?"

Tommy nodded. It would be a good distraction and a good step in the right direction for the two of them to work together on something positive. Kim stood and extended her hand, and he took a hold of it as he stood as well. Before he had a chance to go to his communicator, she used her powers and teleported them both off.

* * *

Carri pulled into her garage, and immediately noticed Rocky's car was already there. She expected him to be there, she knew she was going to have to deal with him as soon as she got home. She was not sure what she was going to say. She had no intention of backing down, and if he did not either, she had no idea where this was going to go.

She cut the engine off and headed toward the door, smacking the button on the wall to shut the garage as she went inside. First, she went toward the living room, and when she saw it was empty, she headed toward the kitchen. Before she went too far, she caught a glimpse of the back door and noticed Rocky sitting outside, beer in hand.

She wandered toward the glass door and slid it back, taking a step out onto the porch before sliding the door closed and leaning against it. "Hey." She said.

"Hey." He replied, not glancing backward.

Knowing there was nothing else to do but to address the giant elephant in the room, she jumped right in. "I know you're pissed at me, and I know you still get jealous toward Jason." She paused for a second. She didn't get why, she'd proven he was like a brother toward her, but that was another story entirely. "But I made the decision to keep his secret for him and I'd make the same decision again in a heartbeat."

Rocky slowly turned toward her. He was not surprised that she did not come home in an apologetic mood. It was rare that she felt she was wrong and she owed someone an apology. She certainly did not apologize because it was what the other person wanted to hear. "I know you guys are close, and I know you've kept his and Kim's secrets over the years." Rocky started to speak. He would have still been hurt, still tried to push how wrong it was if he had not talked to Aisha that afternoon. Thanks to the former yellow, he got why she did what she did. It still somewhat bothered him and he was going to make her squirm. "Still, it hurt that you didn't tell me, and it hurt that it only came out because Tommy stumbled upon your secret."

Carri let out a snort. The mention of Tommy was a sore subject. She still wanted to let him have it over the fact that he teleported to her studio to spy on her, yet he was all over her when she suggested teleporting to New York, even though the reason she almost missed her flight was the result of the rangers.

She tried to ignore that subject and move on. "I know you were hurt. However, it had nothing to do with me not trusting you enough to tell you, and everything to do with the fact that it was not my secret to tell. I would hope that you would understand that."

"I do understand you wanting to keep his secret. To be honest, if it was Adam or Aisha I probably would have done the same thing." Rocky said somewhat cautiously as he prepared to ask her his next question. "But what if I had asked you about Luke Kirk? Would you have lied to me?"

"No." she said simply. "I would have admitted to knowing. I would have told you that according to Luke Kirk I am not allowed to say anything about him, that it would break a business agreement. I take business agreements very seriously." It would have been the truth; his publisher had made sure that anybody working anywhere near the movie had signed a non-disclosure agreement about anything they might hear about the movie, her included. She thought it was bullshit, but Jason did not find it a big enough deal to argue the point.

Rocky looked at her for a moment. He thought it was a cop out to him asking the question, and he wondered if that would have been a different sort of lie. "Did you really sign an agreement?"

"Yeah." She replied with a roll of her eyes. "Jason's publisher had his lawyer up in everybody's face before I could sign the dotted line on the film."

He could not help but laugh. Her having to sign an agreement that made her keep Jason's secret must have ticked her off. She shot him a look and he simply shrugged. When neither said anything else about that subject, he moved on. "So where were you last night?"

"The three of us had a few drinks, and then I stayed in a hotel room with Kim. I thought it was best to deal with all this today." She omitted the part where a few drinks included a few shots and that she had excessively much when she passed out on the bed with Kim. However, she was not lying about anything and she did not find it that important to mention anyway.

"I take it you are feeling calm and better about the situation today?" he asked. He doubted she would have come home if she was not, but he had to ask the question anyway.

"Depends." She replied honestly. "You still going to be pissed at me?"

"I'm not going to say that I'm completely thrilled. But I get it and we're fine." Rocky assured her as he stood.

"Well, then, good." Carri replied. She honesty had expected more of an argument about it and she was glad that he was thinking more clearly this evening. They had not exactly ended their conversation on a hopeful note last night.

"Good." Rocky repeated as he stepped up to her. He leaned in toward her and she grinned at him, then he placed his lips on hers and gave her a quick kiss. He leaned back and smiled. "You want to go get dinner?"

"Sounds good." Carri replied. She turned and slid the glass door back open, and then the two of them exited the porch and headed out for the evening.

* * *

Three Ninjetti stood in the Command Chamber, discussing part of what had gone on the night before. "So everything looked good?" Kim questioned. She had not really gotten an update as to how the grids were holding up. She figured Billy would have told her if they crashed horribly.

"The grid is surpassing my expectations with the coins that we had reconnected." Billy admitted. He honestly was not sure if the grid was going to hold all the coins or not. They did a fantastic job with Kim's one coin, but loading them up with energy from one coin and getting them to cooperate and stabilize and doing it with six was two different things.

"So you think they will hold the last two and let us function as a team again?" Kim questioned as she thought over the answer herself. The grid seemed to be doing well, she had reached out to it when she got there and she could tell it was stronger than before. She did not see any reason why it would not let her recreate their old team in full.

"I think it will." Billy said. They had gone this far, he did not see any reason why they would not go all the way at this point. "The only way to be certain is to gather the team and try again." Hopefully without all the drama this time.

Kim nodded in agreement. "Let me just call Carri and" before she could finish that sentence, a noise went off in the Command Chamber. She recognized the noise and turned toward the video monitor. "Who's that?"

"It's coming from Ocean Bluff." Billy said, curious as he went and answered the call. He watched as the monitor focused and RJ's image came onto the screen.

"Hello? Is this thing on?" the Jungle Fury's mentor said as he stared at the screen.

"RJ?" Billy questioned aloud.

"Billy, hey, there you are." RJ said with a smile. He was not sure this was going to work the way it was supposed to. He had not tried to contact Billy since they set it up. He glanced at the two people standing beside him. "Hope I'm not interrupting, but I need your help."

"No, not at all." Billy replied. The coins could wait. "RJ this is Kim, current Planetary red, and Tommy, former red and current organizer of all the reds." He could have introduced Tommy as a Planetary, but among rangers being introduced as a red shows how high up you are.

"Nice to meet you both." RJ said after they both gave him a quick hello. He had heard of both of them before, especially Tommy after what he had done with red rangers over the years.

"So what's going on?" Kim asked. He called asking for their help, she wanted to figure it out and get on with it. She really wanted to figure this puzzle with the coins out, but if a fellow team needed a hand they would have to attend to that first.

"I was hoping you could help me find my team. They went out for training hours ago and haven't been back. They were supposed to return and help toss pizzas." RJ explained. He was worried when they had not shown up on time. A few minutes late he would have been ok with, almost expected. This was not like them. There had been no news of Dai Shi anywhere in the city. If he had done something with the rangers, he would have made his move by now.

"You don't think they just took off?" Tommy questioned. From what Kim had told him, this new team was teenagers. They were new at being rangers and may not be as disciplined. They could have skipped working and gone to hang out.

"No, they wouldn't do that." RJ replied. Tommy did not know his team, but they were all about their training. They would not take off on him, on this town, without notifying him first.

"It's no problem, I can scan for them." Billy replied. He had after all, made their morphers. It should be easy to scan for them. He walked over toward the console and took a few minutes to try to get a lock on their signals. When they did not show up in Ocean Bluff, he spread the search out. A few minutes later, his brows arched up in confusion. "I can't find them."

"What do you mean?" Kim asked. If they were rangers and he was scanning for their morphing energy, it should be easy.

"Either they've destroyed their morphers," which would be hard to both destroy the devices and the morphing energy carried within them, "or they are not on this world."

"Not on this world?" RJ repeated. "Dude, that's not possible."

"Maybe I can." For the second time in the past five minutes, Kim was interrupted as a noise went off in the Command Chamber. This time it was the alarm. "This is probably our bad guy." She said as she made eye contact with RJ. "We're going to have to take care of him first, and then we'll work on locating your missing rangers." She could probably find them if they were off planet using Billy's technology and her powers, but she doubted she had the time to worry about that right now.

"We'll get back to you soon." Billy said, cutting their conversation with RJ short as he pulled the disturbance up on screen.

What they saw was far from what they expected. Arius stood there, along with his Keresecks waiting to attack. That was not the surprise. The surprise was the three Jungle Fury rangers, morphed and calling out to them, trying to convince them to come out so they could attack.

"Shit." Tommy mumbled as he glanced toward Kim. Evil rangers were never something he liked to see. One was hard enough, now Arius had three. This was not going to be good.


	13. Fury Unleashed

**Disclaimer:** All known ranger characters belong to Saban. Everyone else belongs to me.  
**Author's Note:** Things are still really busy for me but I am working on trying to get chapters done. It is slow moving these days between kids and other projects but the fics are still going. Thank you guys for being patient!

Dark Inheritance  
"Fury Unleashed"

The Red Planetary Ranger thought for a moment about the evil Jungle Fury team on the screen before her. Her fiancé glanced toward her. "We need to go stop them." He said, knowing that task was going to be hard as he spoke.

"I know." She replied with a sigh. This was not what she had planned for the evening. Not that she wasn't used to Arius or someone else interrupting her plans, but this was obviously not going to be a quick battle then home for the night. This was going to be difficult. "We'll call everyone, have them meet us here. We'll head to the fight together."

She did not want them rushing in and attacking the Jungle Fury team. She doubted any of them knew anything about the new team unless they had caught a tidbit on the news. She wanted to make sure they understood whom they were fighting against and that these were not bad guys dressed as rangers, these were good guys who had been forced to do Arius's bidding one way or another.

Kim, Tommy and Billy all went to work, contacting the rest of the team and telling them to hurry and teleport. Despite what they were doing, the members of the team, as always, quickly dropped everything to do their part as rangers. After they received emergency pages to come to the Command Chamber, the rest of the team started to appear before them. The first to arrive was Jason, followed by Carri and Rocky, Jen, and lastly Zhane. Once they all materialized, the white ranger was the first to speak.

"So what's the emergency?" Carri asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. She and Rocky had just finished dinner and she was fairly certain there was going to be some proving to each other that things were alright between them that night. That was until Kim interrupted them. She almost hoped it was a battle, she would be glad to kick the crap out of something.

Kim ignored the attitude and pointed a finger toward the viewing screen. "That's the problem." She said as she drew everyone's focus toward the rangers.

Carri let out a sigh as she realized that anything she and Rocky were thinking about doing that night is now shot to hell. "Yup, that would be an emergency." It looked like tonight was now going to be filled with fighting rangers.

"Who are these guys?" Jason questioned as he looked at the three rangers standing strong by Arius. He had heard about a new trio of rangers but he had been so preoccupied lately between Emily, his books and his own ranger duties that he had not had time to investigate.

"Meet the Jungle Fury rangers. They are all Pai Zhuq students. You have Casey, the Red Tiger Ranger, Lily, the Yellow Cheetah Ranger and Theo, the Blue Jaguar Ranger." Kim gave them a quick synopsis. "Earlier today they left their mentor RJ and went out to do some sort of training. When they did not return, RJ contacted us. When we found them, they appeared on the surface with Arius."

"So evil spell?" Zhane questioned. It would not be the first time the bad guys had turned a ranger evil. He had been there before once with Carri when they were younger. It was tough with evil rangers. You did not want to hurt them because they were still rangers and your friends, but at the same time, they could do some serious damage.

"That's our assumption." Tommy replied, stepping up next to Kim in an attempt to share the lead on this with her. She could argue her status as a red all she wanted to, he was the expert on being an evil ranger.

Jen made a face. "So what, do we need to capture them and bring them here?" She assumed they had to take them down without hurting them. After all, they were still rangers.

"It's not going to do a lot of good to capture them without knowing what kind of hold Arius has on them." Kim pointed out. All that would do would be to put three pissed off evil rangers in their Command Chamber. In the time it would take them to figure out what was wrong, they could destroy the place or worse.

Tommy silently agreed with her. It was absurd to bring them here if they were still evil, even if they were supposed to be prisoners. He knew firsthand what an evil ranger could do to a command post. "We need to go fight them, see what their strengths and weaknesses are, and see if Arius has given them any additional powers." Tommy pointed out. That was step one. They could get a run down from RJ, but they needed to experience the Jungle Fury rangers in hand-to-hand combat to get a real sense of what they could do. Plus it was not unheard of for the bad guy to give their evil rangers a little bonus. They could not plan to do anything to help them until they knew for sure what they were going against.

"So we are going out there to scout?" Rocky questioned. They needed to hurry; the Jungle Fury team looked like they were getting ready to do some serious damage.

"For now." Kim replied. She hoped that Arius was doing the same thing. Testing his team, seeing what they could do. She was hoping for a stalemate, that both sides would retreat after a few minutes of fighting and they would have an opportunity to figure out what happened. They needed time to think, but the evil Jungle Fury team got sprung on them fast. Now they would have to scout them out and worry about how to stop them later.

Kim moved into position to start the morphing sequence, but paused before she did. "If you get an opportunity, try and talk them out of being evil." Depending on the strength of the spell, sometimes that was all it took. She doubted Arius used something that simple, but it was worth a shot.

"Let's do this." She said as her team fell in around her. "Planetary rangers, power up!"

* * *

They teleported to the scene of the impending battle and were immediately greeted by Arius, who looked directly at the Muirantian and smiled. "There you are. I was beginning to wonder who my rangers were going to have to kill to get your attention."

"They're not your rangers." Kim responded calmly, wondering if she could goad him into giving something away. "They're on our side, and we're here to bring them back with us." She seriously doubted that would be the case, but if Arius believed it perhaps he would tell them why that was not possible.

Arius gave her a sly smile and let out a little chuckle. "But you see, Kaycea, they are my rangers. They work for me, and they will do whatever I say." He said as he turned toward the red Jungle Fury ranger. "Will you please tell our demon friend to whom your loyalties lie?"

"We serve Arius." Casey called out, a level of confidence in his voice one would expect from a red.

"Oh brother." Carri mumbled, rolling her eyes from behind her helmet. No doubt, about it, they were playing on the other team now. She briefly wondered if a little lightning strike would jolt them back into their senses, but decided against it. For now.

Kim ignored the comment her friend and continued. "Perhaps they do for now. Whatever spell you put them on, whatever you did to them, we'll find a way to reverse it."

"Poor Kaycea." Arius said, shaking his head. "You don't know what you've gotten yourself into this time." Then he looked over at his team once more. "Would you all do me a favor and destroy the Planetary team? Minus the red. I need her alive." He was counting on the fact that this team was strong, and that the others would not do anything to harm a fellow ranger. He knew how much Kaycea valued human life, valued the lives of other rangers.

"As you wish." Casey replied. Then he, Lily and Theo ran to attack the other rangers.

Kim watched as they completely ignored her. The wave of Keresecks ran by, ignoring her as well. She glanced at Arius and made a face. She really wanted to help with the others, but she trusted her team to handle that. If he was going to stand there in the open, she was going to take a shot. "Fine, if that's the way you want it." She said, calling for her fire saber and running toward him.

As Arius and Kim started a fight of their own, the rest of the rangers were fighting against Arius's divided forces. Carri and Zhane ended up being pulled from the group by Theo, and were jumping into battle against him and several Keresecks.

"Give it up rangers." Theo hissed as he blocked Carri's oncoming attack. "You'll never beat us."

Carri rolled her eyes from behind her helmet. "You're rangers too you know." She pointed out, a hint of irritation in her voice as she attacked him with her lance. She really, really hated evil rangers. "It would do you a lot of good if you'd remember that." She snapped as she hit him hard with her lance and he flipped backward.

Before she could continue, Keresecks jumped on her and she found herself forced to fight them. Zhane had destroyed a few of them, and then took his shot at Theo. "You've got to fight this." Zhane said as he went to attack, remembering similar words being said to him when he was evil. Of course when it was Carri and him, the others could have said what they wanted, words weren't going to work. He had to assume it was the same case here but he would give it a shot.

Theo laughed as he shoved Zhane back a step and got ready to attack. "Fight what? Who I am?" he said as he lunged. He locked up with the green ranger and smiled. "I'm a warrior of Arius. That's not going to change anytime soon."

As Zhane let out a sigh and dove into battle with a fellow ranger, around the battlefield things were going about the same way. Rocky and Tommy were facing off against their own set of Keresecks, as well as the red Jungle Fury ranger.

"You will not make it off this battlefield." Casey assured him as he fought against them. He was doing quite well and he was pleased with the progress he was making for his master.

What he did not know was that during attacks, neither Tommy nor Rocky were giving it one hundred percent. They could fight him off like this and as long as things were going ok, they did not want to risk hurting him. Tommy knocked him hard, and as he stumbled back, the silver ranger spoke. "You are a red Power Ranger. Fighting for the forces of good. You cannot let Arius control you." He was not the first leader of the power rangers to fall prey to an evil spell, but that was not going to stop him from reminding the boy in front of him what being a red meant. Just maybe he could pull him out of Arius's grasp.

"I am a red ranger." Casey replied, a sly smile behind his helmet. "This means I have been awarded all this power. Why waste it doing something good?"

"You weren't chosen to have these powers to lead your team against other rangers. You were chosen to lead them against Dai Shi." Tommy tried to remind him as Casey attacked again. "Fight Arius, be the leader you were chosen to be." He said as they locked up in battle.

"I am being a leader." Casey replied with a hiss as he nudged Tommy back enough to give him an opening for a swift kick. Tommy stumbled and Casey continued. "As for Dai Shi…" his voice trailed off as he gave a slight shrug. Dai Shi could do what he wanted, except for getting in their way.

Before he could move back in on Tommy, Rocky hit him from the side and sent him flying. The blue ranger finished off the last of the Keresecks in his path and he was ready to help with Casey. He glanced over at Tommy, who gave him a nod and the duo moved in to do battle.

Jen also finished off the last of the Keresecks around her before running to join Jason fight Lily. She did not really have experience with evil rangers. Eric was a pain, but at least he fought on the same side. She would read all about them in the histories she studied, she knew they were not something she wanted to fight. "What's the plan?" she asked as she fell into place next to the black ranger. She was not sure if there was something in particular Jason had in mind.

"Keep holding her off for now." Jason said with a sigh. As he moved in to attack again, he felt the ground rumble. He turned in time to see lighting crash through the air. It did not hit the blue Jungle Fury ranger, but it was enough to zing him a bit and get him to back off. Leave it to Carri to go for the hardest hit. He noticed Tommy pause, and he could almost see him glaring at her from behind his helmet. A few seconds past, then he and Rocky followed suit. Jason turned toward Jen. "Let's give her what we've got." He said as the wind around them started to pick up.

"Stun, not destroy I assume." Jen said as the wind whirled around Lilly. She figured that was the plan since none of the other rangers looked like they were hitting the Jungle Fury team. She saw Jason give her a nod and she proceeded.

While all of the rangers were fighting each other, Arius found himself staring at the flaming end of Kaycea's Fire Saber. He saw the other rangers upping the ante a bit. He had expected their reaction. Do as much as they can to stop the Jungle Fury team without causing any damage.

This fight was probably going to end in a draw, which is what he expected. They were all testing his rangers. He imagined Kaycea wanted to see what they could do. He wanted to make sure that what he did to them was good, that they would stay loyal. He thought they would, but this was the first time he had tried this on a ranger. He did not know how they would react. He did not know if their powers could cancel out what he did.

Things started to get a little crazy around the battlefield, so he reared back and hit Kaycea, watching as she flew back. He held back against her and it frustrated him. He could not kill her, which defeated his mission. Now that he knew his rangers were good, he could take them back and move on to stage two. He would kill one or all of the other rangers, then take Kaycea with him, as he has wanted to do all along.

"Rangers." He called aloud and sharp across the battlefield. Everyone stopped briefly and he locked eyes with his red ranger. "Let's return. We'll be back for them later."

With that, Arius and his rangers left. Kim glanced at her team and frowned as she led the teleportation back to the Command Chamber.

* * *

When they returned to the Command Chamber, Kim could not shake the feeling she had gotten on the battlefield. She did not have time to dwell on it then, there was too much going on, but now she could think about it.

Being around the Jungle Fury team, she could sense the dark magic that flowed freely around them. Remnants of something Arius used something he had done to control them. However she was not sure what it was, she did not know how to combat it. She did not exactly learn spells to turn rangers evil when she worked with Mystic Mother.

"Is it just me, or did they give up way to easily?" The white ranger was the first one to speak up. Yes, they were using their planetary attacks, but she hit Tommy harder once and he still finished their fight.

"You're right." Tommy said, not believing that he was agreeing with her on anything now. This was about battle though, and Carri was usually pretty good when it came to battles. Besides he was a ranger first, their personal issues he had to put aside for later. "I have a bad feeling Arius has something else in mind."

"So why initiate the fight if you're not planning on finishing it?" Jen questioned. It made no sense to her. The element of surprise was gone now; they knew he had evil rangers. Unless... "Unless he was doing a dry run for something bigger." She brought her thought to its conclusion aloud.

"That's what I'm afraid of." Kim said as she frowned. There was more to whatever was going on here. They were going to have to put a stop to it and fast.

"So then we stop them now before they have a chance to move to phase two." Jason said matter-of-factly. Arius had evil rangers and he had no intention of finding out exactly what he wanted to do with them.

Rocky nodded his head in agreement. He did not want to see what was on Arius's agenda. "I think we can rule out talking them out of the spell." He pointed out. They tried with Casey; he had no intention on listening to them.

"Agreed." Kim said. She was not sure how to pull them out of the spell. However, she knew how she wanted to get started. "I'm going to go fill RJ in, see if I can get any insight from him. Then I'll stop by and talk to Mystic Mother."

Tommy made a face. Mystic Mother was not his favorite person. However if anybody would know about making rangers good and evil it was her. He frowned briefly to himself before moving on. "So how long is it going to take?"

Kim thought about it for a moment. She was not sure how long it would take. "I think I can be back in twenty minutes." She finally spoke. It might take a good bit longer than that, but she would bend time to get back as quickly as possible.

"Go." Tommy said giving her a nod. "We'll work on alternate strategies while you're gone."

Kim grimaced a bit. Last time they did that, he ended up getting into a fight with Carri. Now that the two of them are at odds, it could be a disaster. However, there was no time to worry about that now. "I'll be back." She said seconds before a red light engulfed her and she teleported off.

* * *

She teleported herself alongside a building, and leaning around the corner she saw the sign. Jungle Karma Pizza. Right where she wanted to be. Quickly she went into the building, and was immediately greeted by a girl with straight brown hair pulled aside into ponytails and glasses.

"Welcome to Jungle Karma pizza." She said as she walked toward her, stumbling over the leg of chair that was pushed out as she did. Kim jumped forward and helped her balance herself before she tumbled. "Thanks." She said giving her a smile. She really had to watch where she walked. The man was sitting on the edge of the chair; she had not noticed how far back she put it. "You here to try some of our amazing pizza?"

"Not now." Kim replied. Perhaps when it is all said and done. All the jumping around she was about to do, she was bound to be hungry. "I'm here to see RJ."

"Oh." The girl said, flashing her a smile. "Right over there." She pointed toward the counter.

Kim was somewhat surprised to find the leader of the Jungle Fury rangers working as though nothing was wrong. If her team was missing, she'd be on the warpath finding them even though other people had promised to help.

"Kim, nice to see you." RJ said flashing her a smile. "Although your stopping by probably doesn't mean good things."

"No… not good at all." Kim said as she looked around the busy restaurant. "Can we talk?"

"Follow me." RJ replied. He took off and led her to the back of the restaurant, through the kitchen and up the stairs. He headed for his chair and took a seat, waiting for her to make herself comfortable. "So what's up?"

"We found your rangers." Kim said her voice grim even though the news appeared to be good.

"And that's not awesome news?" RJ questioned, not missing her tone. He was hoping finding them would be a good thing. Apparently, it was not.

"The man we're fighting – Arius – recruited them to be his evil rangers." Kim replied. There was not much awesome about that. It was essentially a disaster.

"Oh. That's a bummer." RJ said as he frowned. To say that was not awesome news was an understatement. "So how do we get them back on our side?"

"That is a work in progress." Kim said and she could see the concerned expression on RJ's face. "I have some ideas; after I leave here I'm going to go see if my mentor can help." She supposed mentor was the right word. She was the one educating her in sorcery.

"So then what will we do until then? I'm not sure Dai Shi is going to take a break while you figure this out." RJ's immediate thought had been the safety of his rangers. However, what was most important was the safety of his town.

Kim thought about it for a moment. She had not really processed that far yet. She was just worried about her team, about stopping Arius and not creating another Kemora. "There are plenty of other teams with powers still." She said as she thought about Lightspeed in particular. They were always willing to help. She hoped that they could pitch in now. "We will put another team on call and monitor Ocean Bluff. If anything happens you will be protected."

"Awesome." RJ replied. At least that was one problem he didn't have to worry about. "If you need anything from me, just let me know."

"We may need you to help us win your team back." Kim replied. If it became a struggle, if she tried reversing the spell and it pulled back, a familiar face, someone the rangers would want to fight the spell for, would help. She paused for a moment before continuing. "Also I could use all the background on your team that you have." Any little bit could be helpful in reversing this. Some spells were not generic; some spells are tailored to fit the person they were attaching to. It could be specifically for the individual or even their powers.

"Not a problem." RJ said as he stood. He had plenty of information stored away on his team. He hoped that it would be enough to bring them back home where they belonged.

* * *

Arius stood in his room on the ship, looking through his personal safe for something he had for a long time. A small wooden box caught his eye and he pushed a few things aside to get to it. He pulled it out, glancing briefly at the symbols carved in the top of it and smiled.

He took a moment to close and secure his safe before heading out of his room, where his rangers were eagerly waiting for him. His rangers. He liked the sound of that. They were most certainly his. No amount of pleading the other rangers did had any effect on them. He thought the magic was good, but he had to make sure before he let them have this.

This was a treasure that could unlock whatever the mind could create. Inside his box three innocent looking gemstones were nestled safely. They had been there for years. Ever since he had killed three Power Rangers and stole them. Well he would not say stole. They were dead, what use did they have of them anymore.

The gemstones can be turned into any weapon imaginable. He had seen them use them against him. He thought they would be fun to play with. He tried to use one but had no luck. He had gotten others he trusted to try; none of them could do anything with them. The thought occurred to him that perhaps one had to be a ranger to use them.

At that point, most people would get rid of what are essentially three paperweights. Not him. He did not believe in tossing treasures. Every treasure could be unlocked. If his theory was correct, he was about to unlock his.

He walked into the main room, and the three Jungle Fury rangers stood tall and turned toward him. He smiled at them as he approached. "As a reward for your service, I have a gift for you." He said as he opened the box.

Rangers took a stone, and they were each carefully examining them. Arius shut the box and watched them for a moment before speaking. "Now, pretend you are going to attack me. I want you to focus all your energy into your gemstone, into picking your weapon."

He could see them concentrating. It seemed like forever, but simultaneously the once clear gemstones started to glow, their colors matching that of the ranger holding them. When the glow subsided, they each held a weapon in their hands.

"Perfect." Arius replied. Something was finally going his way. "Why don't you practice with the stones. Once you feel comfortable with them I'll let you show them to those Planetary Rangers." He said as he turned and headed toward his seat. It looked like his treasure was going to be of use to him after all.

* * *

Kim arrived on Phaedos thinking about her discussion with RJ. She had initially assumed that their animals are connected to their powers, but that was apparently incorrect. They had their own animal spirits and they would train in the ways of their animal spirit. It raised a question she wanted to ask Dulcea before she continued.

It did not take long for her mentor to find her. The guardian of the temple smiled upon seeing her student. "Kimberly." She said simply as she took in the puzzled look on the other woman's face. "What brings you here?"

"I have a question." Kim said, watching as the other woman nod as though the question was expected. "Do you know anything about the Pai Zhuq?"

"I know what I discussed with Zordon." Dulcea replied. She knew that Kim would cross paths with Pai Zhuq students eventually, and she knew that her student would have questions. She was curious as to what caused them to cross paths now however, she did not ask.

"They have animal spirits. Are they like the Ninjetti?" she questioned. Perhaps there was a connection tobe madethere.

"The Ninjetti have a strong bond between a person and their animal spirit. As the crane Ninjetti, you have a connection to the crane, to the Great Power and the spirit world, that is powerful and that cannot be broken." Dulcea explained. "If one is properly trained, they can learn from their animal spirit, but they will not have the same connection a Ninjetti has. This can be both good and bad." That was what Ninjor believed. That one could be trained in the way of their spirit animal but did not need to be a Ninjetti to do so. He used to put more faith in the power of the Ninjetti. In his old age he started to worry that there was not anyone who was worthy of the bond the Ninjetti create. Dulcea knew her mentor was wrong, she had proven that when Kim and her friends stepped onto Phaedos. Centuries ago, he would have seen her point, now he was simply stuck in his ways.

Kim waited a moment, and when Dulcea did not continue, she pushed her to. "How so?"

"They will never bond as strongly, or to be able to manipulate their animal spirit the way a trained Ninjetti can, the way you can. However they are open to learning from more than one animal spirit." Dulcea explained.

"So they can have multiple spirit guides?" Kim questioned. It did not make much sense to her.

"Not guides, however if other animal spirits see fit to assist them, they will be able to." Dulcea told her. She thought it was absurd. One could not learn what they needed to make themselves strong warriors by not committing to their own spirit guide. However it was good enough to lead the Pai Zhuq students and if that was all they wanted from their training then so be it.

"If three Pai Zhuq students were spelled into becoming evil, what would become of their animal spirits?" Kim questioned. Animal spirits she could possibly deal with easier than she could the actual rangers.

"If they were turned evil against their will, since they don't have that strong connection their animal spirits will be harder to manipulate. It would take a lot of power to get an animal spirit to fully embrace evil, and something like a simple spell wouldn't work."

Kim thought about that for a moment. "So if I turned evil…" her voice trailed off.

"You are a Ninjetti. If you chose to follow the path of evil, the crane would come with you." Dulcea replied. Should Kim one day embrace her demonic side, she would have to interfere. She would have to figure out how to break that bond.

Kim nodded. She had not thought that consequence about before. Of course, if she turned into Kemora, she doubted she would even care about her Ninjetti powers. She briefly wondered if Kemora had hers. She did not think so; she was old enough to have been stripped of all her ranger powers yet too young to have made her way back to them when she became who she was today.

"Thank you." She said, giving Dulcea a brief goodbye before teleporting herself to the Mystic Realm, where Mystic Mother was waiting for her.

"I was wondering when you'd show up." She said as she looked at Kim.

"How did you…" Kim's voice trailed off as Mystic Mother jetted her thumb behind her, stepping aside to reveal her daughter.

"Skull and I were watching TV and it was all over the news. Rangers fighting other rangers. I thought mum could help." Rhianna explained. She knew her mother knew all sorts of spells for creating evil rangers when she was Rita. Goldar had given her all sorts of ideas for conquering the rangers, and finding her mother's spell book was one of them. She figured she had to know how to reverse it if she knew how to do it.

"So then how do we reverse the spell on an evil ranger?" Kim asked. If Mystic Mother knew already, she figured the woman had to have been thinking about it.

"Just because I had your lover boy and Katherine wrapped around my finger doesn't mean I know everything about evil spells." Mystic Mother pointed out. She knew a lot, and she probably could help. Still she wanted to make her think about running to her and assuming.

"So then you can't help me turn the rangers back and save my team and possibly my planet?" Kim asked a hint of irritation in her voice. If the answer was no, she was fairly sure it would be because she wouldn't do it, not because she couldn't.

Mystic Mother put a hand to her head. She could feel another headache coming on. "Tell me what you know, and we'll see what I can do." She replied. Between her daughter and her student, sometimes she could go crazy. Hopefully she could deal with this quickly and get on with her day.

Kim made a face. She did not know much, and most of it was feeling and instinct based on her own abilities. Hopefully that would be enough for Mystic Mother to give her a way to counter Arius. If not, they could be in serious trouble.

* * *

It had been twenty-five minutes since they last saw Kim. Tommy was getting a bit on edge for several reasons. The first had nothing to do with the battle. The first was that he was tired of watching Carri and Jason go around and talk to the other rangers, when he had a lot to say to them. They were ignoring him, which was the smart thing to do on their part. He would stay away and not address the issue now. They had more important things to worry about. Still, he could not help but think about it while they had nothing to do.

The second was the battle itself. The evil Jungle Fury rangers could return at any minute. They had no idea what Arius had in store for them or how to help the team. He would have a better idea when Kim returned, which was supposed to been five minutes go. They spent the first ten minutes discussing possible alternatives, but nothing they could come up with was long term. Either kill or trap the enemy. Kill was not an option, and they could not come up with an effective way to trap them. If they go with an easier method, the rangers might escape. The foolproof methods are so strong they can do damage to the person they are holding on to. Billy was working on an alternate method, but he had not heard anything back from the former blue ranger.

Before Tommy could run through all their ideas in his head again, one of the things he was waiting for happened. The alarm sounded, and the rangers quickly moved to figure out the cause of the commotion. "So now what?" Jen asked, as she was the first to get a good look at the action on screen. Her mentor was not back yet and they had nothing.

"We fight." Jason replied. They did not have much of a choice in the matter. They were going to have to fight the Jungle Fury team until they could come up with a better solution.

Tommy did not want to acknowledge that the black ranger was right. Instead, he shifted toward the front of the team, assuming the role of absolute leader in his fiancé's absence. "Let's go." He said quickly as he started to go through the motions. "Planetary rangers, power up!"

Seconds later the six of them were on the battlefield. Arius looked them over, somewhat disappointed. "Kaycea isn't here?" he questioned. "It would be a shame for her to miss this, but I will make sure she gets to enjoy the carnage before we leave this pathetic world." It worried him that she was not here. He was going to have to stay on alert. "Rangers," he started, turning toward Casey, "make sure that Kaycea has nothing but bodies to find when she returns."

"Our pleasure." Casey replied as he and the Jungle Fury rangers ran to attack the others.

They split up in the same fashion they did before. This time the Jungle Fury team did not have any Keresecks to back them up. They did not really need them. They had been defeated the first time and they would get defeated again. It was much simpler just to skip that step. Besides, they had something new to keep the rangers busy.

They were quick to show the Planetary Rangers what they could do. On one side of the battle, the white ranger was leaping through the air when a hammer materialized in the blue rangers' hands, smashing into her and sending her flying. On another, the black ranger was fighting hand to hand when a yellow glow produced a whip, which wrapped around him. He took a few hits from the yellow ranger before she sent him sailing as well.

In the middle of the battlefield, Tommy watched as the blue ranger had his weapon ripped out of his hand by a claw. He ran to attack Casey, and before his eyes, the claw shifted, glowing in red light. When the light died down, Casey held a spear in his hands. He used the spear to deflect his attack, and then the spear became an axe that hit him in the back.

Tommy tumbled onto the ground, and rolled seconds before the sharp end of the axe made contact with him. Tommy reached for his daggers as he jumped up, and when he went to attack, he made contact with a large shield that pushed him back before turning and clocking the incoming blue ranger.

Casey let out a laugh, as his weapon became a sword. "There isn't anything you can do to me that I can't come up with something to counter you with."

"We'll see about that." Tommy assured him. There was a level of confidence in his voice, one that he wasn't sure he felt. Whatever Arius gave them, at least he assumed it was Arius since this was not part of their ranger arsenal, was allowing them to create weapons at will. It was hard to fight an enemy when you did not know what they were going to throw at you next.

The sword in his hands slashed to attack, and Tommy caught it in his daggers. The sword then curved and the chain it became yanked the weapons away, slinging them across the battlefield. Tommy moved quickly and kicked Casey in the stomach before flipping over him to retrieve his weapon. Casey turned and as he did, Rocky attacked from behind. It was not pretty, but they got the first good hits in since the fight started.

None of the rangers were doing any better. There were occasional hits on the Jungle Fury team but there weren't any rangers that were able to get any serious attacks going. Just as they were starting to get seriously frustrated, Tommy's voice came through the other rangers helmets. "Power up your weapons. Kim should be back soon but until then we can't keep letting them hit us." As he powered up his daggers he could see the other rangers move in with their weapons.

The Jungle Fury team was still able to make their own weapons to counter, but counter was all they could do; they were not able to get an attack in. Tommy was satisfied with that for the moment, but things were going to have to change.

A red light appeared off in the distance, and Tommy was hoping that somebody was granting his wish. "I hope you've got something." Tommy said, assuming the visitor was Kim without ever actually looking. When she did not answer, he called out to her. "Kim?" he said, stepping back from his own battle for a moment. Much to his surprise, it was not the red ranger standing there; it was the Pink Crane Ninjetti.

Kim was trying something. It was a theory, one she was not sure was going to work but it was worth a try. The magic was good; Mystic Mother had given her a direction to go there. She had not helped her, simply given her direction. Of course, Mystic Mother could not be sure of what spell Arius used. She knew what the base spell was, but that was ancient, every sorcerer who was worth a damn had changed it to fit themselves. What Kim was planning on doing would at least counteract part of the spell; she was hoping her idea would help the magic do the rest.

She headed to the middle of the fight. "Get the Jungle Fury team to me." She directed. Kim watched as the elements surrounded the Jungle Fury rangers, pushing them all in her direction.

She held a glass container in her hands, one she filled with everything she would need to start the spell. Once they were close enough, she lifted the container above her head before smashing it to the ground. The magic was released, and it surrounded the Jungle Fury rangers. She spoke a few words in a language that only Arius understood. The magic was complete. Now it was time for part B. The pink Ninjetti levitated above the rangers. She used her knowledge of animal spirits to allow the crane to flow through her, to reach out to them. She hoped that this would work.

Arius watched everything the red ranger was doing. He knew what she was doing was useless. He shared his magic with no one, and there was not anyone in the universe that could create the precise spell to counteract his. Still, his rangers dropped to their knees as they fought off her magic. He did not know what she was doing now, but he could not leave them here. He had to let what she did wear off. It was time to retreat. Once their heads were clear, they would return. This time Kaycea would not have anything to use. This time his weapons would work.

* * *

Up on Arius's ship, the rangers were lying on the bridge, fighting off the magic that surrounded them. They were trying to push through the spell. It was working, but they could all feel something nagging at them, something that was keeping them from fighting the spell like they should.

They felt it when the crane moved around them. Now the presence of the crane was gone but its influence was still there. There was another animal presence pulling at them, but they could not quite put a finger on it. Lily was the first to feel it. All the sudden at the forefront of her thoughts there was a cheetah. She studied it for a second, and then she reached out to it.

Then a wave came over her, Kim's magic taking hold, and she remembered. She was a Pai Zhuq student she was fighting Dai Shi. She did not belong on this ship, and she certainly should not be fighting for the man that approached them in the woods. She stood straight and looked tentatively at Arius.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked, as he looked her over, trying to assess the damage.

"Yes." She said tentatively. She did not know if she could fool him, but she hoped so. "As soon as the others are ready we will go back and attack." She figured if they could get back to the surface, she could get the other rangers' attention and get help.

"We will return soon enough." Arius replied as the blue ranger stood. He appreciated her enthusiasm, but he had to make sure they were ready. By ready he meant not going to turn on him, and able to defeat those rangers and convince Kaycea to come with him.

"Wh…" Theo started to speak, but Lily tried to give him a subtle jab in the side.

Arius noticed the behavior, and knew right away that something was wrong. "Perhaps the three of you should follow me."

It was then that Casey stood. He did not know what Arius had in mind. He knew that they were not behaving the same way they did an hour ago. Arius was sharp; he would notice that as well. He was afraid Arius was planning on either spelling them again or killing them. He had to get his team out of there.

"We should attack now while they think we are weak." Casey said as he took a brief look around the ship. He saw the console that one of Arius's minions had used to teleport them. He thought he could repeat the process but he was not sure.

"We will attack Kaycea's rangers again." Arius assured him. There was definitely something wrong with them. He feared that they were no longer his minions that somehow Kaycea had managed to reverse his magic. He was not sure what his next step was going to be. He needed to get them in a holding cell. "First you must follow me." He repeated his earlier statement. If they were not going to, he would have to take matters into his own hands.

Casey was not sure what to reply with. Arius, who could think of nothing but winning this fight, was now hesitant to continue this battle. He knew something was wrong. "I don't think so." Casey said as he turned and leaped toward the console. He hoped he had paid enough attention, and that this actually worked. He hit the button's he had seen hit earlier, and just like that the three of them were teleported to the surface.

"Where are we?" Theo asked, as they appeared somewhere other than home.

"I think it's Angel Grove park." Casey replied. It would make sense, that was the last place they were teleported too.

"So now what?" Lily asked. She supposed they could just take a bus home, however she was not certain that Arius was simply going to let this end here. Plus they still had these weapons, weapons that had a lot of power that she was not sure they needed.

Before Casey could come up with an answer, a group of multi colored streaks flew down in front of them. They materialized into what he assumed was the team they had fought.

Kim took a step forward and studied them carefully. "It worked." She said simply. Any traces of the magic she had felt before were gone now. The Jungle Fury team was back on their side. Arius was not going to be pleased.

Tommy was quick to step forward. He wanted to introduce himself to Casey. He was the newest red ranger; he needed to get brought into their fold. As he started to speak, Arius appeared with Shax and a group of Keresecks.

"Just because you ran off, doesn't make this over." Arius said. His voice was calm, but inside he was furious. He did not know how Kaycea defeated his spell. It should not have been possible. He was simply going to have to destroy those rangers now.

"Oh but it does." Kim said as she and her team immediately shifted. "Planetary rangers, power up!"

Casey watched them morph, then moved into position with his team. This was about them; it was their fight as well. "Jungle beast, spirit unleashed!" he called out as he and his two teammates morphed.

Arius watched as the fight broke out among the rangers and his forces. The red and silver rangers were both pushing toward him. He would defeat them both easily. "Just because you're bringing your little human toy doesn't mean you'll fare any better against me." Arius said as they approached.

"We'll see." Kim replied as she and Tommy powered up their weapons.

"What if you add a red ranger to the mix?" Casey asked as he came up alongside them. His teammates had split up to go help the other rangers. He wanted to take on Arius.

Arius laughed. "You think you scare me? You're just a child."

"I may be a novice ranger," Casey said as he grabbed the gem Arius gave them, "but that doesn't mean I can't take you on." He said, leaping toward him and creating a sword so that he could slash him on the way down. As Arius stumbled backward, the two Planetary Rangers quickly moved in to attack as well.

Meanwhile, the rest of the rangers were taking on Arius's forces. Carri was in the middle of a fight with two Keresecks. Theo appeared behind them, and created a weapon that could reach them both, destroying both of them at one time.

"I like you a lot more when you're on our side." Carri commented as she moved off to help Jen fight the group surrounding her.

"Me too." Theo said, smiling from behind his helmet as he went to join her.

Lily was also getting in on the action, taking a swing at Shax with the blue and black Planetary Rangers. "This guy isn't so tough." She said as she created a hammer and swung it upwards, catching him in the chin and knocking him backwards.

"Nope." Jason agreed, hitting him with his mace before he got back up. "I'm not worried about him."

"You should be." Shax replied, but before he could get a good attack going Rocky came in from the side, kicking him to stop him in his tracks and using his staff to knock him down once more.

All of the rangers were doing well in their battles. Between Jen, Carri, Theo and Zhane the Keresecks did not last long at all. The four rangers went to join the others, who were already giving Shax quite the beating. Once they joined in, Arius's first in command had no choice but to retreat.

That left seven rangers standing there, watching the battle between the past and present red rangers and Arius. "We should go help them." Lily commented, wondering why they had not already run over there.

"We should." Carri agreed, although she was not sure marching over there and attacking would do much good. Arius was powerful, and he was proving that he could hold his own against someone with a wide range of power, plus a red ranger with a weird new weapon and the man who has probably been a ranger longer than anybody.

Theo started to take off but Jason stepped forward. "How good are you guys with that weapon of yours?" Jason asked as he gestured toward their gems.

"We've learned how to manipulate it well." Theo replied. Arius made them learn, he would not let them attack the rangers until they could prove they knew how to use it.

"My team can provide a distraction. Mix up the elements, cause a little confusion. You move in there and hit him hard. You are going to have to move quickly and switch it up though. We can throw him off his game, but he is still good. The same style of an attack won't work twice." Jason said as the plan came together in his mind.

"Should we get the others out of the way first?" Lily asked. She did not want to unintentionally harm anybody on either team.

The white ranger snorted. "No." She said, not caring if Tommy accidently got caught in the crossfire. She was still mad at him; a little whack would not hurt him.

"We can't alert them, it will tip him off. But try not to hit one of ours." Jason said, shooting his head in his friend's direction. He was not that happy with Tommy either, but that did not mean they could attack a fellow ranger.

"What?" Carri asked with a shrug.

Jason rolled his eyes from behind his helmet. "You guys take off, we'll get started."

The battle between Arius and the three rangers was so fierce that none of them noticed what was going on around them, until the ground beneath them started shaking. The wind picked up and lightning crashed to the ground. It was enough to make Arius turn his head, and when he did, the other two members of the Jungle Fury team attacked him.

They kept turning to hit him, each time the weapon in their hands changing. The environment around them got worse; the commotion the team was causing making visibility nearly impossible. Casey wasted no time joining his team once he figured out what they were doing. Kim even added a few tricks of her own to the mix.

Eventually no one could see anything. The rangers were using a version of infrared to find Arius. He was beyond frustrated. He had no idea where the attacks were coming from and they were constantly changing. He could not get any sort of defense going, let alone a good offence. "Enough!" he finally bellowed, loud enough for Kaycea to hear him.

"Do you give up?" Kim called out over the wind.

"Give up? I think not." He yelled back. "However I do believe that this is over for now, until next time rangers."

With that, he was gone; however, the weather was not dying down. Kim teleported herself outside of the craziness that had become their battlefield and she jogged around the perimeter until she found her team. "He's gone." She called out toward them as she approached. The ground stopped shaking and all the weird weather events calmed down. "Good job guys. Let's get back to the Command Chamber." It had been a good idea. They could keep up the commotion, and they had a second team to attack. It would not destroy him, but it gave him a good ass kicking.

The others nodded, and her team teleported up. She went back to join Tommy, and the two of them grabbed the Jungle Fury rangers, teleporting them all up to the Command Chamber.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Billy stood analyzing test results. Finally he spoke. "Looks like they are back to normal." As normal as a ranger could be anyway, they were free of Arius's magic.

"Good." Tommy said as he watched the Jungle Fury team stand there awkwardly. They did not have a command center like this. He could tell they were a bit in awe of what Billy had done here.

"So now what?" Casey asked as he glanced over at the silver ranger. Tommy had introduced himself earlier while Billy was running tests. Apparently, he was in charge of all the red rangers that had ever been on Earth. He said that when they had time, they would all meet and touch base. It would be his chance to meet all the other reds, assuming there were no emergencies before that. According to Tommy, they gathered for emergencies.

Much to his surprise, he was already in the presence of several red rangers. He was barely out of diapers when the rangers first popped on the scene in Angel Grove, and he only had vague memories of seeing them on the news growing up, but Tommy said that their black ranger, Jason, was the first red, and that Rocky, the blue ranger, had been his replacement. They even had a female red in Kim, who was the only female red on Earth.

"Now you go home." Tommy replied, breaking Casey away from his thoughts. "You have a city of your own to defend."

"What about these?" Theo piped up as he pulled a gem from his pocket.

Kim stepped forward and took a moment to really look it over. She had heard of these, she knew which part of the galaxy they came from. She had heard rumors about them, heard about the team of rangers they once belonged to. These were not weapons that could be simply dropped into the hands of the next ranger. The team that used them before was ancient by Earth's standards and had been trained in them. Without the proper training, there was a list of potential long-term negative outcomes ranging from physical harm to the power of the gem turning its user evil.

"Let me have them." She said as she held her hand out. "I'll put them somewhere safe where nobody else can use them." She would have to hide them. Several years after the rangers wielding them were destroyed, their home planet was taken over by a conquering empire and there was no one left to teach anybody how to use them anymore.

Casey glanced first at Tommy, who nodded, then he indicated that Theo should hand his over as he and Lily both produced their gemstones. Kim was somewhat irritated. Granted Tommy is considered the leader of the reds, but she was still the leader of this team and had a wealth of knowledge and experiences that Tommy could never obtain. She shook off the feeling as she collected the gems from the remaining two rangers.

"I'll be back." She said as she teleported herself away. No need to keep these around any longer.

"Sorry you got mixed up in all this." Jason said, not missing Casey looking to Tommy for approval. Even he was somewhat irritated. Not that he wanted the leader of the reds job, but still he was Zordon's handpicked first red ranger. Somehow, over the years Tommy managed to become the most looked up to, most idolized of Zordon's rangers.

"It's ok. It gave us a chance to meet more rangers." Lily said, giving him a smile.

Carri snorted. She could not see a positive in this experience; they would have met the others eventually, but good for the yellow ranger for trying. "Well if you ever want to meet everyone else, just ask. You don't have to get abducted and turned evil first."

"It worked for Tommy." Jason mused aloud. He glanced up and caught the white ranger's gaze, and she rolled her eyes. He chuckled and before the exchange could go further, Tommy interrupted.

"Anyway." He said sternly. He still had to talk to those two and he was not in the mood for any of that. "We'll go ahead and teleport you out. RJ is waiting for you. Good luck in your battle against Dai Shi."

"Thank you." Casey replied, wondering what in the world was going on here. He did not have much time to think about it though as the teleportation beams surrounded them and they were gone.

Once they were clear of the Command Chamber, Tommy turned his attention toward his teammates. "I believe we had a discussion to finish?"

Carri crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a cold hard look. "Do you really want to go there again?"

"You lied to me." Tommy replied, his voice rather even considering how fumed he was. Yelling was not going to get him anywhere but into an argument, and they needed to have this conversation.

"And?" Carri questioned. It was not the first time she had ever lied to Tommy and it probably would not be the last. "You broke into my studio. I could have you arrested for that."

"You'd never prove it." Tommy pointed out. She did not even know how he did it. She was about to argue the point when he cut her off. "The two of you left me no choice. All I wanted to know was who was writing the books. You should have told me."

"Why? So you could tell me to quit?" Jason questioned with a huff. Like hell he would quit. He made good money off the books they were huge hits. He was not letting Tommy take that away from him.

"It would have been nice to know that it was a ranger doing it. That it wasn't someone who learned our secrets, who knew more than any civilian should know." Tommy pointed out. It wasn't obvious to the world that they were plots constructed from ranger related things, but it was obvious to other rangers. If it was an outsider, he would have had to deal with that person. "You know I've been keeping track of the rangers on Earth. I needed a heads up."

"So then since I'm writing them you are fine with them?" Jason questioned, somewhat skeptical. It was not going to be this easy.

"It's too late for you to un-write them, and you can't quit." Tommy said his frustration obvious. If Luke Kirk never wrote another book, it would create more questions than the books themselves could ever create. "Don't think though that I'm not going to read all the books and keep a close eye on them and if I ever think that you have said too much you will be dealt with."

Jason gave him a cold hard stare. Dealt with. Tommy was full of shit if he thought he was going to deal with him somehow. Not that Jason would ever write anything that would compromise the team. Still the thought that Tommy thought he could do something about it ticked him off.

"As for you," Tommy said, turning toward Carri as Kim teleported back in, "don't lie to me again." Carri was not the one who wrote the books, she was not the one he had to keep a close eye on. She did have to refrain from lying to his face again.

The white ranger rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She said the closest thing to agreeing Tommy was going to get. "Just stay out of my studio."

Tommy gave her a look that suggested he would, however he did not say it aloud. Kim looked around the room, assuming that they came to some sort of agreement. She would have to dig into it later. "Ok." She said, somewhat cheerfully trying to break the dark mood. "Let's figure out if we can get all our coins working." With that, the conflict was momentarily forgotten.

* * *

While Kim was working on the coins, Arius found himself walking into Deimos's main chamber. He was not going to beg for forgiveness. He did not beg. However, perhaps he could talk Deimos into another chance. He knew it was a long shot, but he had to try.

"Deimos." He greeted giving him a slight bow.

"You failed me." He said, not wanting to bother with any standard greeting. Arius did not deserve it. This used to be his top general, the demon he went to when he needed something done. He had given him the simplest of tasks. Get the Planetary team out of the way and get Kaycea to come join him as his wife. Yet he continued to fail. Everyone he sent failed, and he had enough.

"I do not know how Kaycea countered my spell on those rangers. It will not happen again. There are other ways to get rangers to work for me." Arius replied. He had other ideas, ways to build teams of evil rangers. Kaycea would not undo his magic again.

"Perhaps." Deimos replied simply. The idea of creating evil rangers was a good one, however Arius had underestimated the demon spawn of Maligore and that was a mistake. "You, however, will not get the opportunity to test that theory. Take him to Cerchik."

Two of Deimos's strongest warriors went to grab Arius. "I can handle this. There is no need to"

"Don't bother." Deimos cut him off as he was dragged away. His slogot was hungry, and Xinas had not been enough food. "Secure him and throw him in the cage."

Before Arius could try to make his case, he felt the cuff go on his wrist. It was not a pathetic handcuff like the people of Earth used. This one was magical, and it bound his powers and kept him from using them. He was thrown out of the main room, and as he saw the doors shut in front of him he knew things were not looking well for him.

Deimos sat back in his seat as Arius was taken away. Evil rangers were something to think about. He would consider it as an option; however, he would have to figure out how to go about it. If he were to attempt it, he would have to figure out how to do it properly. He did not allow mistakes to happen.

That meant that perhaps that was not the best way to go. He would have to mull it over. For now, he would leave Kaycea wondering. He would let Shax stay, and let her spend her days thinking Arius could attack any minute. When she least expected it, he would show up and personally take her for his own.

* * *

Kim stood in the Command Chamber, watching as the yellow uniform overtook her friend. She was the last of the former rangers to get connected to the grid. The other six members of their former team were standing there fully morphed.

She found herself letting out the breath she did not know she was holding. Seven rangers were connected to the ancient grid that Cratus tried to destroy. "Well?" she questioned. She could reach out to the grid, but she found herself nervous to do so. She was afraid of learning something bad.

"The grid is holding strong." Billy replied. It had taken all of the coins, accepted those connections and was willing to allow the team to function. "I believe it will allow for the full set of rangers to enter into battle."

Kim closed her eyes and reached out to the grid herself. Billy's good news made her excited to verify it. She could feel the power of the ancient grid that had been so finicky. She could feel it surround her she could feel it flourish. She opened her eyes with a smile on her face. She and Billy had done it. They fixed the grid. They now had a surprise in their back pocket. Arius did not stand a chance.


	14. Surviving Celebrations

**Disclaimer:** The Power Rangers and all things related belong to Saban. K, the DG, Thomas, and anything coming from The Coin Series belongs to KSuzie. Everything else belongs to me and cannot be used without my permission.  
**Authors Note:** Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Life is about to get very exciting for the rangers...

Dark Inheritance

"Surviving Celebrations"

Three loud knocks against the door. "Carri come on! You have to get up; we've got a lot to do today!" Kim yelled through the door. She glanced back at all the faces staring at her and gave them a hesitant smile. "You know Carri; she'd stay in bed all day if you let her."

Her brown eyes made contact with those of a former yellow ranger. She was the only other woman in the room who really knew what Carri was doing in bed. It was two in the afternoon and she wasn't still sleeping. They had done brunch and done some stress relief shopping already that day. Then the white ranger went to get changed, and the bridesmaids were supposed to meet her at two so they could all go to the rehearsal together. The bride to be wasn't coming out of her room, plain and simple.

The day before her parents arrived from New York. That night it had been her father's suggestion to go out to dinner, just the couple and their immediate families. It had been Carri who said it would be lovely if the maid of honor and best man could go, so Kim and Adam, along with their dates, were there to witness the train wreck.

While for the most part their families got along well, their mothers hated each other. And one personality trait that Carri inherited from her mother was the inability to keep her thoughts to herself. She'd give Rocky's mom credit; the woman didn't want to flat out speak poorly of Carri. Although any idiot could read between the lines, and the insinuation that Carri had turned into nothing more than a Hollywood slut was there.

Comments were ignored until Rebecca was a few martinis into dinner. Then she made more than one snide comment about Carri marrying beneath herself. She'd give her friend credit, instead of telling both women exactly what she thought of their behavior, she got up, issued a few venomous looks, and then stormed off.

It was Josh who was the first to jump up and chase after her. Kim was glad, she wanted to speak to her friend but she didn't want to leave Tommy and Josh to sit there and stare at each other. It was obvious that Josh hadn't forgotten about her and the last thing her friend needed was the silver ranger trying to pummel her brother.

By the time she caught up to the two siblings, it was clear that Josh had at least gotten her off of her mother's case. He was the only one who knew their mother well enough to get her to behave. He also redirected some of her anger toward the tabloids, the reason Rocky's mother thought poorly of her. When Carri looked like she was teetering between staying calm or not, Kim approached and said it was no worse than having dinner with Rita and Divatox. That got a laugh from her friend and, while still peeved, she did make it through the rest of the dinner without her temper showing through.

That morning was a different story and Kim wasn't surprised the white ranger was ignoring her now. "Carri we need to get moving soon or we're going to be late!" she called through the door. It was locked; she'd already tried to get in that way. If it weren't for Rocky's sisters staring at her she'd simply teleport in.

She almost wished there was a monster attack. Carri wouldn't ignore her communicator, and then she could tackle the white ranger and force her to go to the rehearsal. However she didn't see that happening anytime soon.

Things had been quiet over the last month. A little too quiet for her taste, Arius hadn't made so much as a peep in weeks. Yet his ship still loomed ominously on the other side of the moon. Billy checked for it every day, sometimes two or three times. Even the ship itself was quiet, as Billy never saw any signs of activity. They knew he was planning something, they just didn't know what.

It worried her, it had the team concerned, but there wasn't anything she could do about it. She was somewhat concerned they'd attack the wedding, where they had a small army of present and former rangers they could try to destroy. However there was no evidence of that, no evidence of any plans on Aruis's end. She'd have to wait until they had some sort of clue. Until she knew what was going on she was going to stay on guard and be prepared for anything.

"Maybe you should call her." One of Rocky's sisters piped up, pulling Kim back into her current problem.

Kim sighed to herself. It wasn't going to be that easy. Then again. "I think that's a great idea. Let me go to my car and get my phone." She said. She turned and headed for the garage, shooting Ashley a look as she went. She knew the former ranger saw her glance down at her communicator; she hoped she got the point.

The red ranger walked into the garage and shut the door behind herself before teleporting herself into Carri's bedroom. There was no white ranger in the bed, nor were there any signs of life coming from the bathroom. Somehow she'd gone AWOL.

There was only one way to find her. Seconds later Kim appeared in the Command Chamber, where, much to her surprise, her friend was pacing back and forth, spouting off something that made no sense to her.

"Car, you can't just up and go." Jason's gruff voice came from his position along the wall.

"Why not?" Carri asked, not stopping walking as the wheels were turning. She had been thinking this over since she got back from shopping. "It works and I don't have to try to pretend to be nice with all this bullshit. Because we all know that I'm not going to be able to keep my mouth shut."

Kim glanced over at the former blue ranger, who was smart enough to be standing well out of the way of this one. Billy simply shrugged. "She teleported up about ten minutes go. I wanted to page you but you were already with Rocky's sisters." Someone needed to bring her back down to Earth. He couldn't tell Rocky, the blue ranger was under enough stress with the wedding as it was. So that left him with the two people she was closest with.

"What's going on?" Kim asked, moving quickly so she was right in Carri's path.

"Kim." Carri said simply, smiling as she acknowledged her friend. "I am glad you're here. I wasn't going to follow through without you."

"Follow through with what?" Kim asked, glancing briefly at Jason who rolled his eyes.

"Getting married." Carri said, as though the answer was obvious. "I found a way to fix this problem that doesn't end with me going insane." She should have just listened to her gut from the minute she realized she was getting married.

"You're pacing back and forth in the Command Chamber. I think you're already a bit crazy." Kim pointed out.

Carri huffed. "I'm pacing because it's keeping me calm. I'm angry because Billy thinks it's a stupid idea and won't let me page everyone to put it into motion." She said, shooting the blue ranger a look.

"It is a stupid idea." Jason pointed out. "Your wedding is tomorrow, you've already gotten all this in motion, you are stuck going through with it."

"It was my first idea when I saw I was getting married. I should have listened to myself." Carri argued.

A sense of dread washed over Kim as she thought about what her first idea was. "You can't ditch Rocky now. I know your mothers hate each other but he'll be crushed. I thought you were ok with the whole marriage thing."

"I'm not going to ditch Rocky." Carri said, rolling her eyes heavenward. Now that was a crazy idea. "I'm going to take our team with us down to city hall and let you guys be witnesses as we get married. Then Rocky and I will take off for our honeymoon, and we'll send word via my wedding planner to my parents that we opted out of the wedding. My mom will be pissed, but it's not the first time she's ever disapproved of something I've done. After a few martinis she'll get over it. Hell my family is probably expecting it from me."

"What about Rocky's family, who by the way will probably be crushed." Kim said. She knew they were already devastated he wasn't using their church. It wouldn't fly well at all that they didn't have a real wedding. Carri simply shrugged and Kim sighed as she glanced at Jason. "You're right, it is a stupid idea."

The white ranger crossed her arms over her chest. "And why is it a stupid idea? I cannot sit there and listen to his mother try to politely talk shit about me while my mother openly talks shit about him. I'm not going to keep my mouth shut another night. They'll push me and I'll open it and I'll spew the first thing that comes out." She watched as Kim gave her a look. "You know it's true."

"Maybe." Kim replied, knowing if she was left alone with the two women she would most certainly give them both a piece of her mind. "But tomorrow, at your wedding, you are going to have so many people there it will be easy to pretend neither mother exists. And tonight is just the wedding party and some out of town guests but that is still going to make fifty people. You'll be fine." She could see her friend deflate some. She was going to give in and go get ready for the rehearsal.

"You've stood up to Callisto, you can certainly handle this." Jason pointed out, glad that Kim came up there and could give him a hand. "And if it gets too out of control, I'll start handing out the tequila."

Carri chuckled. Although there was no way in hell she was getting back into the tequila, the thought of tolerating her mother with drunkenness made her smile. At least then they'd be on even ground. However that was her mother's way of dealing with things and that was not going to be her. As long as she didn't let Jason have a say in it.

"Fine, we'll do it your way." Carri said with a sigh. "But no Patron." She said her last statement directed toward the black ranger.

Kim shook her head in agreement as she walked over to grab her friend's arm. "Come on; let's get back to the house so that you can get ready to go."

With that, the two female rangers took off. Jason simply shook his head. Although he agreed with her, it was much too late to do anything about it and he was glad that Kim could get her to come to her senses. He gave Billy a quick goodbye before teleporting off as well so that he could get ready to do his part during the rehearsal.

* * *

A few hours later the rehearsal itself had come to an end and those in the wedding party along with most of the out of town guests were seated in a banquet hall at a beachfront event facility in Angel Grove. It was here that the groom found himself at a table with his two best friends, relaxing and reflecting while they finished their dinner.

So far it had been a good night. The rehearsal had been fairly uneventful, Carri chalking it up to the fact that her mother hadn't started drinking yet and that her mother and his mother didn't have to share the same space. The dinner was starting to become another story, and the blue ranger heard his fiancé's agitated voice filter through the room more than once as she was dragged around to see some of the family that had flown in that she hadn't gotten to see yet.

"So are you ready to commit to one woman for the rest of your life?" Adam teased as he took a sip from his wine glass. He had already committed to one woman, who was around here somewhere socializing.

Rocky chuckled and Aisha grinned. "Please he committed to her a long time ago." She pointed out. She knew Rocky had been thinking about it since they were in college. He always said the proposal would have to be perfect, which is why he waited. Then the rangers interfered. Rocky often wondered where they would be now if Carri hadn't gotten involved again. Aisha thought they would be married with five kids, but then again she didn't know Carri that well so she couldn't say for sure. On more than one occasion Rocky joked that he'd probably still be waiting for the perfect time to ask her to marry him.

"True. He's been thinking about this since senior year at Angel Grove High." Adam said as he smiled. His friend really hadn't thought about marriage until college. However watching the two of them together, he always suspected it would go that way.

"No." Rocky spoke quickly, a grin on his face. "I spent most of senior year trying to figure her out. Then when I realized she was a lost cause I had to decide if she was worth it or not." He was teasing, although Adam still looked at him and laughed, nodding in understanding. There was some truth to that. Carri was unlike any of the girls he'd ever met. He'd never call her a lost cause though. You just had to figure out who she was and embrace it. Fortunately when she joined the team they were all able to do that.

As the laughter died down, Aisha spoke. "Well I think you're lucky. Both of you." she said, using the fork in her hand to point to the two guys she grew up with. "You guys have someone. As of now I just have my animals."

"What about the guy you brought to the reunion?" Adam asked. Last he heard they were getting serious.

"Turns out he was a jerk." Aisha said with a shrug. "Caught him with another girl in his apartment; threw his ass to the curb right there." He was full of excuses, but she was not about to let any of them fly. She knew there was the perfect man out there for her somewhere and she wasn't about to settle.

Rocky frowned. "I'm sorry Sha." He said as he leaned over and gave her a half hug.

"No need to be sorry." Aisha said, half sorry she brought it up. It happened a week ago and she was still pissed about it. "I'm just saying you guys are lucky. I'll find the right man someday." For now, she was content focusing on her career, which was doing really well.

"We'll have to keep on the lookout for eligible bachelors." Rocky said, although where he was going to find single men he didn't know.

"If you find someone let me know." Aisha replied with a grin. Not that she expected them to show up at her door with a blind date. "And if you hear that Miss Jolie fell off the face of the earth, give me a call."

Rocky let out a laugh. Both the white and red rangers had quite the thing for a certain actor throughout college. "What is it with female," he stopped short, having almost forgotten there were others in the room, "females in our club and Brad Pitt."

"I don't know but there is something about that boy." Aisha said with a grin. She and Kim used to go to his movies in high school and drool over him.

"Tanya didn't have a thing for him." Adam pointed out. To be fair, Tanya came from a place that didn't really care about western movies. "Neither did Kat." He added. Although he did remember Kat mentioning an Aussie actor a few times in high school.

"That's because nobody properly infused them with California blood." Aisha joked. For the five months she and Kat served on the same team, Kat was busy getting used to America. She didn't have time to really get her into the things she did with Kim. Then Kat hadn't been Californized enough to spread it to Tanya.

"Yes because that's what we needed. More females running around like the rest of you." Rocky teased, causing Adam to groan and roll his eyes.

"Hey!" Aisha exclaimed, reaching out to hit both of her friends at the same time. "I'll have you know that" She stopped short when someone clanged loudly on a glass. "Looks like you're up." She said as she glanced at Rocky.

The blue ranger looked around the room for his bride to be but was having trouble spotting her. He quit looking when a voice spoke and pulled his attention away. There was a woman standing on a chair. He recognized the woman to be Carri and Kat's cousin Kendall. He'd met her once when Kat had her baby. Carri didn't talk much about her; all he knew was that the two had a bad relationship.

He knew she was here tonight; he met her at the beginning of the dinner. She'd come up to him, dragging a man in tow. He was amused with George, who looked like he could be his twin brother. He could tell it irked Carri, but other than one snide remark Carri kept her mouth shut. Despite the fact that he looked like him, he wasn't anything like him. The other man could have walked right off the set of Jersey Shore. He even told them that he liked California because it was easier to GTL.

What Kendall was doing, he didn't know. Carri's feelings were reciprocated, and Kendall wouldn't have anything good to say. He didn't have to wait long to find out the answer as she started to speak.

"Can I have everybody's attention!" her voice rang through the room. "I'm so glad to see most of my family here today." She said as she smiled sweetly. She would have a lot more family there tomorrow, but she didn't want to wait. Besides, this was a lot of people, and she knew with the smaller crowd it would be much easier for all eyes to be on her. "You are all part of such a special moment for our family." She said as she gestured around the room. "The love that has blossomed between two people… this special time for a wonderful couple that you are all privileged enough to be a part of, to be here to celebrate with." She paused as some in the audience smiled and nodded. "You are all blessed to be here with us, because as of this morning, George and I are getting married!"

The room got so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Rocky tensed up for a moment, trying to calculate the distance to Kendall and if he could intercept Carri. He'd give his fiancé credit. She didn't physically maul the woman. Instead she broke the silence by saying a few choice things that while they may be accurate would not help his mother's opinion of her, and then she turned and stormed off.

"She's just stressed; with the wedding." Carri's father's voice called out through the crowd. It was complete bullshit and everyone in there knew it, however he was trying to save this from being a complete disaster. "Congratulations Kendall." He offered, clapping. Much to his relief, others followed suit.

Kendall sat down and the room tried to return to normal. Aisha turned to Rocky. "What a bitch. Should I go set her straight?" Who announced their engagement at someone else's wedding rehearsal? She supposed it was better than the ceremony itself. She was upset for Rocky. This was for him and his fiancé, to steal their moment was just rude.

Rocky caught Kendall out of the corner of his eye. She was close by, and apparently she talking about getting married to anyone who would listen. "No, if she still needs to be set straight I think Carri will be happy to do it."

"Are you going to chase after your fiancé?" Adam questioned, wondering if someone should go make sure a morphed ranger didn't storm through the door.

"I'll give her some time. She didn't throttle Kendall, so that's a good sign." Rocky replied. Besides, he wasn't the best one to chase after her. He knew nothing about her relationship with Kendall. He was glad her brother was there, he was the only one who knew everything where her family was concerned and was probably the only one who could say something she'd listen to. "Let's finish eating." He said as he gestured to their plates. Hopefully he could forget that Kendall ever opened her mouth at all. However he could see his family stirring. This was going to be a long dinner.

* * *

Carri stormed out of the back of the dining hall and headed outside, making her way toward the ocean. She needed fresh air; she needed peace and quiet, before she snapped. Five minutes ago she was undecided on who her first victim was going to be. There was her mother, who hated Rocky's family because they weren't worthy of being linked to their family. Of course they weren't the other ones she thought she was above. While she hadn't said anything tonight, the majority of her father's family thought she was a high society snoot while she considered them beneath her. It helped the inner-family conflict that some of the family was still in the flying in process.

Then there was Rocky's mom, who was making it known to the members of her family that attended that Carri's mother was rude and too big for her britches, which only fueled her mother more. She supposed the positive was that his mother had forgotten about her and the tabloids for the moment, other than one or two comments she knew had gotten passed around. Now though she didn't need to debate who she was angrier with for causing drama. Should she snap, should someone walk out of the room needing facial reconstruction surgery, it would be Kendall.

She didn't want her there, but technically she was out of town family so her father wasn't giving her any say. She knew from the minute she walked in the door and shoved Rocky's dumb could be twin in her face she was going to find a way to be trouble. She should have socked him for actually saying GTL. She would have saved some drama and done the world a favor. Even Kat, with all her sticky sweet goodness and insistence over the years that Kendall was her friend despite what a bitch she was to her, thought the scenario was wrong and Kendall was up to something.

It should come as no surprise to Carri that Kendall announced her engagement in the middle of her wedding rehearsal dinner. Still the fact that the bitch stood there and talked about a wonderful couple, making the evening all about her, pissed her off to no end. She was doing it because she hated Carri and she loved drama, she loved all eyes on her. Even if it was true that he proposed that morning, which she doubted, the respectful person would wait to announce it to their family until after the wedding they'd all gathered for. However she wouldn't have gotten the attention she so desperately craved.

She wasn't pissed because she took something away from her. She didn't care about the wedding; she still wanted the rest of the rangers and the courthouse. It was a dig at her, which ticked her off and caused her to go off on a rant, but it was also taking something away from Rocky and his family. This was important to him and she wanted to give them that moment. Rocky had wanted this for a long time; she wasn't going to let Kendall ruin it for him.

This was turning out to be more convoluted than she thought it would and she wished it was over. A little more than twenty four hours and she would be free of this bullshit; she just had to survive without killing anyone. She tried to take a calming breath as she saw the small wall at the back of the property that separated the sand from the bushes and flowers. Seeing a good seat, she made a beeline for the back, hoping nobody would notice her. The calming breath didn't work and if the wrong someone found her too soon it was going to be over. She pushed through some tall bushes and popped out the other side, only to be greeted with a weapon in her face.

"Hold it right there!" Wes ordered as he checked out his opponent. He watched as a startled Carri put her hands up. He couldn't help but smile as he lowered his weapon. "Sorry."

"Just doing your job." Carri said as she went and sat down on the ledge. The Silver Guardians so far had been a good call. They had chased away several paparazzi during the rehearsal in a manner which she doubted they'd ever return and so far she hadn't had any tabloid related incidents at the dinner. Plus if Arius came back they'd be on top of it. She almost hoped he would. It would end this miserable event all together and she might even get her courthouse wish. She turned back and saw Wes watching her and she motioned for him to come join her.

"Wouldn't this be not doing my job?" Wes questioned with a grin as he sat down next to her.

"I don't think anyone is going to sneak up on us; at least not to live to tell about it." Carri replied, smiling over at him before turning to look out over the ocean and sighing. Everything about being out here felt so simple. It was nice. She used to sit out by the ocean in high school and college by herself. It was a great place to distress and unwind. It had been years since she really had the time to do it.

"So, you are taking a break from the festivities?" Wes questioned as he glanced over at her. For someone who was getting married tomorrow, she didn't seem too excited. Jen mentioned once there was an odd reaction when she was alone with Carri and Kim and the red ranger brought up the wedding, but she didn't know what it was about and she hadn't pried.

Carri couldn't help but snort. "You could say that." She was still leaning toward running away from the festivities, but after her mini panic attack she came to her senses. Her parents would never let her hear the end of it. Not because she left, but because it would be an embarrassing fiasco that cost her parents money. Of course she wasn't sure it would be any worse than what was going on now.

"Cheer up. You're marrying the man of your dreams tomorrow." Wes replied. He assumed he was the man of her dreams seeing as how they agreed to get married. He hadn't spent enough time with either of them to know enough about their relationship to say he was the man of her dreams.

"I guess so." Carri said absentmindedly. Not wanting to get into details about what was driving her crazy with Wes, she shifted the subject. "You married the woman of your dreams. You have an amazing wedding day?"

"It wasn't quite the wedding dreams were made of. It was a small, private ceremony. Jen didn't have anyone in this time to invite. I invited close friends and family, but we didn't want any more than that." Wes replied. They didn't get the big fancy wedding Carri was having. It would have attracted too much attention; they would have risked Time Force finding out. The big wedding would have been nice, but it would never have been worth the risk. "Don't get me wrong though, for what we could have it was amazing. I wouldn't have it any other way." He amended as he thought about his statement.

Carri let out a wishful sigh. "Your wedding sounds perfect." She assured him. She'd probably leave out the family all together but a small ceremony would have been perfect.

"I wish I could have given her more. It's not like my family is short on funds. We could have had everything. It just wasn't worth the risk." Wes said with a sigh.

"Risk?" Carri questioned before the realization dawned on her. "Oh." She said as she understood. "Time Force." It was a simple statement, but it said enough.

"If someone had gotten a picture of us and it ended up in the paper or worse," Wes paused and shook his head, "we only have a few snapshots to remember it by, and those are under lock and key."

Carri frowned. It can't be easy for them to live in constant fear. They were keeping Jen's secret, despite Tommy's reservations. Although she doubted Kim would ever let him do anything with his concerns. Jen was part of their team. Plus they got along well enough, although she hadn't spent much time with her. She felt somewhat guilty about that, but these days' time didn't allow for a lot of new friend bonding.

She looked over and saw the emotion on Wes's face. "When you love a ranger, things are never easy." She commented. Even for herself and her friends, who didn't have to constantly worry about someone coming back in time to take their significant other away.

"It hasn't been easy for him either." Wes said as he nodded over in Eric's direction. "Although it's working."

Carri glanced down a ways and saw Eric standing there. "How are things going with him and Taylor?"

"Good. I think he's finally going to propose." Wes replied as he chuckled. "I never thought it would last. She can be a bit in your face with a bit of a temper."

Carri couldn't help but laugh out loud. When Wes looked at her curiously, she elaborated. "Must be in the job requirements for a yellow." That was a bit of who she was too.

"You? A temper?" Wes questioned as the bushes rustled from behind them. They both turned, getting ready to jump up for action, when Jason and Emily emerged.

Jason looked at the two of them. He had caught enough of the end of their conversation that he could pick on Carri. "To say she had a bit of a temper would be a bit of an understatement."

Carri reached over and smacked his leg. "Thanks." She said sarcastically. She watched as Jason and Emily jumped off the ledge and down to the sand below. "You guys running away too?"

"Yeah." Jason said gruffly, his good mood from a second ago fading away. He should have snuck a bottle of liquor out. He could use a shot or two. He wasn't surprised to find Carri out here, and he knew she could use a shot or two as well. The room had quickly deteriorated after Carri left. People were trying to get back to normal, but Kendall's announcement had caused a whole lot of rumblings. Rocky's mom was upset about the rudeness of Carri's cousin, and he wouldn't dare repeat what she thought of Carri after seeing her reaction. Carri's mother, who for once was actually in agreement with her daughter, was furious with the non-socialized misfit in her husband's family. "It's a huge, jumbled mess in there Car."

Carri made a grunting noise as she flopped back onto the ground. Wes looked concerned but Jason simply shrugged it off. A few seconds later Carri propped herself on her elbows. "Is it too late to grab a fist full of ranger family and go back to plan courthouse? I really liked that one better."

Jason let out a grunt of his own. He was actually considering agreeing with her this time. He knew what they were up against, but he thought for sure it wouldn't be this bad. The only way Carri was going to make it through tomorrow would be if they reactivated Rita's old Carribot and sent it in her place. However he wasn't going to voice that out loud. Kim would kill him and probably dump both of them in another galaxy until they were needed. "I think you've missed the boat on that one." Although if it was him he'd say to hell with asking opinions and do it; he understood why she snuck away; if he had to spend another moment in there he was going to go off on someone. He made a break for it and took his girlfriend with him.

"Oh God." She moaned, flopping back down. She knew this big wedding was going to get out of hand, and this was only the tip of the iceberg. This was just the wedding party and the out of town family that managed to make it here in time to attend. However this was what Rocky wanted. She told him where things could go wrong but he swore he'd make sure it was all ok. Now she wished she had done what she wanted.

"It can't be that bad." Wes said, trying to make her feel a bit better about the situation.

"Oh but it is." Carri said as she propped herself back up. "My mom thinks I've really fallen off the line of what is appropriate behavior, Rocky's mom hates me, my mom and her socialite friends, who won't even all be here to chime in until tomorrow, hate everyone, especially Rocky's family, then there's my self-absorbed bitch cousin… it's a huge mess."

"I don't get it." Wes said as he made a face. "I was there when your parents held a video conference with my dad about hiring the Silver Guardians. She seemed really nice." Or at least nice enough, not the hateful woman Carri was trying to make her out to be.

"Of course she was nice to your dad." Carri replied as she rolled her eyes heavenward. "He has plenty of dollar signs behind his name." She pointed out, shaking her head. Her mother ran Manhattan's high society. She ranked people she liked based on how much money they had.

Wes made a face. "Your mom can't be that shallow." Carri showed no signs of the same trait. And despite whatever was going on inside, her mother was letting Carri marry Rocky, a man who did well for himself but wasn't close to wealthy.

"Did you know," Carri started as she pulled herself to a fully seated position, "that when my mother called me to tell me that your dad signed off on us borrowing the Silver Guardians, she made sure to tell me that Mr. Collins has a son about my age. Handsome, head of the Silver Guardians, and heir to a lot. Married, but as we both knew I could change that." Carri narrowed her eyes and looked at him. She didn't know how much more she could prove her point.

Jason laughed out loud and even Wes let out a little chuckle. "Ok. So maybe you were right and I was wrong."

"Damn straight." Carri replied with a grin as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm always right."

"Christ Wes." Jason said as he groaned. "You really didn't have to agree with her, she's got a big enough ego as it is." That was one sentence Jason tried never to speak to her. She'd never let him hear the end of it if he did.

"Oh but it's too late to take it back." Carri replied, grinning wickedly. "You heard him, I'm right. You can't tell me I'm never right again. Wes said it, I've got witnesses." She said as she pointed toward Emily.

Jason glanced back toward his girlfriend and she shrugged. "Sorry Jase. I'm going to have to tell the truth if I'm put on the stand." She said with a smile. She was glad to be out here joking around a bit now. It let the stress out a little, and it reminded her of years past.

Jason was about to say something when someone else came pushing through the bushes. "There you are." Kim said as she spotted Carri sitting down. "You're wanted inside." She heard Jason's laugh after she stepped outside and followed the voices. She figured Carri was probably close by. Things had calmed down and were in a little better order, and now everyone was searching for the bride to be.

"Crap." Carri said with feeling, the good feeling she had gone as she stood and brushed the loose dirt off her back. Kim moved over to help her and Carri sighed. "How about you just teleport me somewhere I can't get to by myself. And leave me there. I heard Muirantias is nice this time of year."

"Muirantias?" Kim questioned, brushing the last of the dirt away as Carri nodded. Kim glanced between Wes and Jason. "Did you guys drug her?"

Carri snorted. "Can you honestly tell me that it's not a better place to be right now?"

Kim opened her mouth briefly than shut it. That was the place of her nightmares. But the way this night was going that was going to be replaced with this rehearsal dinner. "Come on." She said with a sigh, grabbing Carri's hand as Jason laughed at her lack of response.

"Maybe if we get lucky they'll be a monster attack." Carri grumbled as she allowed Kim to drag her off.

Wes shook his head as she disappeared, looking briefly at Jason who chuckled before heading off with Emily. Wes jumped back to his feet and quickly moved back into position to continue his job.

* * *

The rest of the rehearsal dinner, although without major incident, was still a mess. Kim had gone home with Carri and while she had told everyone she was staying with the bride to be to help keep her together it was more to keep her from doing something stupid.

Fortunately she never had to intervene. The white ranger went home and spent an hour ranting about her frustrations before throwing in the towel. Kim suggested they go get some sleep and she heard her friend go into the bedroom. The next morning she found out that right after she went to bed Carri reemerged, her mind not shutting off. She turned her laptop on and focused her excess energy on getting some work done. Around four she tried to go to sleep again, only she sat there with her eyes open, her mind whirling. She claimed to have dozed off sometime around six thirty, and then her alarm went off at seven.

Kim was worried about the day. Carri had a temper on a normal day and worked hard to control it but she tended to let it show more the less sleep she got. So far she had been alright. She was in good spirits during the early breakfast with the bridesmaids. She had been happy so far at the salon, despite the fact that Rocky's mother had complained about the excessiveness and the expense of the place since she walked in the front door.

His sisters hadn't complained at all. They were the opposite; they ran to the lavish pedicure room and took their seats, happily chattering the entire time. The female rangers elected to sit for manicures first, leaving the DeSantos's sisters to chatter, however they were loud enough that they didn't get the quiet they were looking for.

After Carri got her French manicure, a stylist came to steal her away for her hair before she sat for a pedicure. Rocky's sisters followed and they were finally out of earshot. While Kim felt bad for her friend, she and the other rangers were glad to be able to sit in their pedicure chairs in peace.

As they sat down, Aisha grinned and looked at the others. "Well at least we know some of the family is fond of Carri." She liked Rocky's sisters; at least she did when they were younger. Rocky said that Carri had spent time with them then too, which is probably why they've ignored their mother and are still fond of her now. She always thought his mom was sweet, and as far as she could tell the woman thought she was protecting her son from heartbreak. She wished her friend could tell his mother the truth about things, however they were just going to have to leave it be.

Kim glanced over to make sure everyone was out of earshot. "I think if she had her way she would run off with our family to get married and forget about what either of the other two thought." As she spoke, she tapped her communicator to indicate the ranger family she was referencing.

Kat made a nose of disapproval. She loved her ranger family, but she couldn't imagine an event like this without her own family in attendance. However her cousin, who despite their differences did love her own family, was closer to her ranger family and put them first. She didn't get it, and had a hard time dealing with her commitment to the rangers. That was the life she chose though and she had to figure out a way to deal with it.

"That might not have been a bad idea." Ashley said with a chuckle. She had a feeling the ceremony would be fine. The reception was another story entirely. However last she heard Carri was looking at three hundred people and there was a good chance that most of the drama would get lost in the crowd.

"I'd almost consider doing it." Kim said absentmindedly. Not that she didn't want to have a big wedding with Tommy and their families; she just had so much going on between work, the rangers, Arius and all things related to her Muirantian powers, plus the DG who could come back to her any time, that she didn't know if she had time left to worry about a wedding. Although she supposed she could follow in her friend's footsteps and hire a wedding planner. The difference between the two women was that she didn't think her fiancé cared a bit one way or the other.

"That's right." Kat said, the red ranger's engagement slipping her mind until now. She tried not to think about it. She was happily married, however she still had a history with Tommy and she loved him at one point. "I don't think I've gotten to congratulate you yet." She flashed Kim a smile before she continued. "Congratulations."

"Thank you." Kim said. She wasn't sure what to expect from the former pink ranger where her engagement was concerned. Kat was happily married; however the history they shared over Tommy still hung between them and was the reason that, no matter how much they insisted it was nobody's fault, they would never be good friends.

"It won't be long and we will be doing this all over again." Aisha pointed out with a grin as she glanced over at Kim. "So when is the big day?"

"We haven't decided yet." Kim replied. She honestly hadn't given it much thought. She had to take care of the immediate concerns first. She had to make sure her future wasn't that of Kemora's, that she wasn't going to lose and reunite the evil alliance. Then she would think of a wedding date with Tommy.

"It doesn't matter. You two have been practically married since high school anyway." Aisha replied, giving Kim a sly grin. Those two were joined at the hip until Kim left for Florida. She caught Kat's reaction and she grimaced. She had all but forgotten the months Tommy spent dating the other pink ranger. Not on purpose. She was just in Africa for their short relationship and by the time she returned to the states, things were back to where they should be with her friends.

As much as Kat hated to admit it, she supposed her friend was right. Even when she was with Tommy, his heart still belonged to his ex-girlfriend. He proved that on more than one occasion when their paths crossed. "It's ok." Kat replied with a smile. She didn't want Aisha to feel bad for thinking that way. "She's not too far off base. Tommy was yours even when he was mine."

Kim didn't know how to respond to that. She wasn't sure if Kat was upset. The former ranger didn't look upset. Why should she be? She was married with a daughter. Still, Tommy brought up a lot of feelings between the two women. When it boiled down to it, she suspected Kat was right. She never really talked to Tommy about it. She knew he did love Kat in a way. However every encounter they had while the two were dating proved that he loved her more, no matter how much they insisted they were not a couple.

Their triangle was complicated for the year that it carried on. Although Kat broke up with Tommy, the red ranger had already chosen Kim. It was weird to think that there were worlds out there where Tommy didn't chose Kim. Ones where he was truly madly deeply in love with Kat. That's what happened to Kemora. K told her once before of the statistics of Tommy choosing Kat or Kim or neither. Apparently there were some worlds out there where Tommy made a choice that K vowed never to speak of again. Those worlds sparked her curiosity, and sometimes when she was bored she would seek out unfamiliar worlds. She never meddled, only spied, and then returned home. So far she hadn't seen any of the oddities K spoke of. She supposed it was stupid of her to go poking around other dimensions. However if she had been spotted by the moderators nobody had turned her in, or at least Thomas hadn't come to yell at her.

For a brief second she allowed herself to think about Thomas, about the DG. She was doing the best she could to follow what little of the rules she knew. She wasn't about to get busted, to be tortured at the hands of the DG for meddling in her timeline or of those of other dimensions. She was surprised that she was still under their radar. As her powers grew she ventured out and did more and more to practice them. They had to know what she was doing.

Despite the lack of contact, she had a good feeling Thomas knew what she was up to. Yet he chose to leave her be. It had been over a year now since her life changing trip to Muirantias. The DG had to know she was gaining power. It was no secret in her own universe. Sooner or later they'd come to her and they'd officially bring her into the fold. Then she would have to say yes. Every fiber of her being screamed to have nothing to do with them, but if she wasn't with them she was against them and against them meant elimination.

"It's ok though, I'm happy for you, I really am."

Kat's voice brought Kim back into a conversation that she had completely forgotten. In just a few seconds her mind had become consumed with the DG, and she was running through a thousand different scenarios of what the future may bring. "Thank you." She replied, giving Kat a smile. She leaned back into the massage chair and tried to keep her mind from wandering again. It was her best friend's wedding day and she would be damned if she'd let thoughts of her fate consume her. Instead she was going to sit here and enjoy getting pampered until it was time to get ready.

* * *

The ceremony was scheduled to start any minute. Jason, who was supposed to be seating guests, had abandoned his post for the moment. There were plenty there doing the seating, besides most of the guests were seated already. He caught a group of people he wanted to say hello to before things really kicked off. He doubted Carri would get mad at him for wandering off. If she did, he'd be happy to point out what he'd already been through with this event and how he was going to do what he wanted for a moment.

He slid down the second row of folding chairs and made his way toward three familiar faces. The original yellow ranger glanced up and caught his eye, smiling at him and waving him over. "Don't you have a job to do?" she teased as he approached.

Jason huffed as he sat down with three of Zordon's original rangers. Trini glared at him and he smirked. "I'm taking a break."

"If I had known it was break time I would have brought a few beers in and we could relax, enjoy the view." Zack joked. He had been so busy lately he wasn't even sure he could make it, but he was glad he got here. He'd known Rocky and Carri for years although they weren't that close. Still they were ranger family and he wouldn't miss it. Plus it gave him the opportunity to hang out with old friends.

"It certainly is spectacular." Billy replied as he glanced out over the ocean. The thought honestly hadn't crossed his mind when he and Trini got married. Theirs had been a relatively small ceremony, attended by thirty people and held at a banquet hall in Los Angeles that catered to that sort of thing.

Neither one of them were from religious families. While they weren't interested in a huge ceremony, they didn't want to just go down to the courthouse and get married. Trini was the one who did the research and came up with the place. He found it to fit their needs and thought it would be a good place to gather people for a ceremony.

"It is." Jason agreed. "It should keep her mind off the rest of this." He said, gesturing to the other chairs that were seating a small army.

"Has it really been that bad?" Zack asked. When he spoke to Jason on the phone that morning he thought that the former red ranger had to be exaggerating. When Jason nodded Zack let out a whistle. "Well let's make it through this and then I'll help you forget your weekend at the open bar."

"I'm going to take you up on that." Jason assured him. He felt a tap on his arm, and looked over to see that his girlfriend had been seated. "Hey." He greeted as he wrapped his arm around her and gave her a kiss. He was glad she had managed to make it to the front with the other rangers. She didn't know anybody else here, and technically all non-family was supposed to go in the back. Carri, who didn't give a damn about offending her own family by putting them behind her ranger family, made sure that the rangers that attended got seated toward the front on her side. That had been his and Tommy's job when seating people.

"Hey." Emily replied before looking around him and smiling at his friends.

"You remember Zack, Billy and Trini right?" He asked, watching as she nodded. They pleasantly greeted her, and he was glad to see them accept her with open arms. He still was never sure what kind of reception she would get considering how their first relationship ended. However as days passed the others were getting friendlier with her when they saw her, even Kim and Carri who he never thought would accept her again.

Emily smiled warmly at Trini. "You look amazing." She said, her eyes going toward the baby bump that was forming around her midsection.

Trini absentmindedly reached down to touch her belly. "Thank you." She replied. It was nice to get the compliment. She had worried and fretted for hours over what to wear. That usually wasn't like her. However here she was in the second trimester and she was really starting to lose her body. She knew most of the concerns were inward over outward. She knew that people didn't expect her to come in with a tiny waistline. Still, she wanted to look good, she wanted to feel good. Billy assured her she was beautiful, however he was her husband, his vote didn't count.

Billy smiled warmly and put his hand over his wife's. He knew how much the compliments meant to her. "Are we still planning on gathering after this is all said and done?"

"Yes." Jason replied. It was great to see the rangers that had shown up here, but they couldn't get a chance to really talk to each other in a public setting. "I have an executive suite reserved at a hotel close by. It should be perfect for reminiscing."

Billy nodded. "Good. It is always nice to converse with others in a non-emergency setting." He had seen the other rangers who were his classmates after their reunion. This time it was going to include some of the others they knew, others they worked with that weren't part of the class of ninety seven.

"Yes and" Before Zack could finish his thought, Tommy's voice came through loud and clear.

Jason made a face. The way he called his name it sounded as though he was scolding one of his students. "What's up?" he called back. He was trying to be friendly with Tommy, but there was still tension between the two of them.

"They are starting. We need to get situated." Tommy replied. He wished he could have sat down with the other rangers, but one of them needed to be doing what they were supposed to do. It irritated him a bit, but he wasn't going to say anything here.

"Alright." Jason replied as he stood. "See you guys in a bit." He said before he pushed down the aisle so that he could get ready for the ceremony to start.

* * *

The ceremony went by quickly and was followed by the reception. There was toasting and dancing, eating and drinking, and before anybody knew it the new bride and groom were leaving to board the Hillard's private jet to fly down to Hawaii. It was more of a honeymoon than the groom was looking for, but the bride wanted to lay down on the beach and not get up for a week. Assuming, of course, that Arius left them be.

Several of the rangers had stayed behind at the end to make sure all of Carri and Rocky's things made it back to their house. Now Ashley and Kim, the last two stragglers, were making their way up the elevator to the room that was reserved for a ranger gathering.

"That went well." Ashley said as she watched the numbers on the elevator increase. Her instinct had been right, there had been enough people there that the drama wasn't as intense as Carri thought it would be.

Carri did her damndest to remain lost in the crowd, avoiding her drunken mother and her high society circle, which were standing on one side of the room snubbing everyone that wasn't worthy, which was almost everyone else there. Rocky's family stayed on the opposite side of the ballroom from Carri's creating their own commentary on the evening. Kendall tried her hardest to steal the spotlight away, but was largely ignored. The wedding party, along with other ranger family and anyone else that promised to be pleasant, stayed together in the center of the room and there they became the life of the party. Other than one or two incidents that made their way toward them, they had a great time.

"It did." Kim replied. She was surprised that nobody got struck by lightning the entire day. The ceremony was close to perfect, and Carri tried her damndest to stay blissfully unaware of any drama at the reception just so she wouldn't do something that would likely get her on Tommy's shit list. Again.

"Now we finally get to relax." Ashley said, glancing at Kim as both girls giggled. They were glad this was done. Their friend could breathe easy now and they wouldn't have to worry about her sanity. At least where the wedding was concerned; of course it wouldn't be long now before they were planning another ranger wedding.

Kim thought about it for a moment. It was weird relaxing with Ashley. In college Ashley was a younger friend, another ranger who had stood beside her on several missions. Now Ashley was her boss. The former yellow ranger hadn't changed, but it was strange to think that on Monday Kim would get up to go to work, answering to Ashley and hoping the other woman would continue to put up with her absences and not fire her. That thought bounced around her head often, no matter how many times Ashley assured her she was ok.

She let that thought slide as the doors dinged open. The girls made their way down the hallway and found the suite. Kim reached up and knocked, and the black ranger answered. "About time you two got here." He said, a sly grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Kim reached out and slapped him across the stomach. "You bailed on us." She stated.

"Like hell." Jason said, although it was somewhat true. He had wanted to get to the room, to make sure they had enough food and beer, and to hang out with old friends and have a drink. "You said you only had a few things left to do so I split."

"We." Kim said plainly. "I said we only had a few things left to do."

"Yeah. You and Ashley." Jason said, trying hard not to smile at the red ranger.

Kim crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You're just lucky that we're stronger than you anyway so it didn't matter." With that, she stepped through the doorway and nudged him out of the way with her elbow. He laughed as Ashley followed her in.

As they entered the room, Kim took a moment to take everything in. She saw Ashley go over and put her arms around her husband and it occurred to her that there were several different teams represented here tonight. Zordon's rangers had gotten together before, but she had never been a part of this kind of social gathering among rangers that didn't involve rushing out to fight.

Every ranger that had been mentored by Zordon was there. So was the entire Space team, including Karone who had come with Zhane. Wes had joined his wife, who he had introduced to the Space team as Kate. Kim paused for a moment and frowned. She wanted to do something for Jen. She wanted her not to have to live in fear for Time Force. She didn't know what she could do though. However she was Muirantian, there had to be something within her abilities.

She spotted Eric, another member of Time Force, who had stopped by on the way there to pick up his girlfriend. The former yellow ranger wasn't the only member of Wild Force there, Cole and Alyssa had come too. She noticed Tommy making his way toward the two Silver Guardians and she went to join their group.

"Hey." She said as she walked up behind her fiancé and linked her arm in his.

"Hey beautiful." Tommy said before leaning down to give her a kiss. He was in the process of talking to everybody. He really wanted to catch up with the original team, but he didn't want the others to leave without him acknowledging him. He knew this was an unofficial function, still he felt like it was his duty to say hello.

Jen watched the two kiss and she smiled. She didn't know many specifics about their relationship, but she knew that Tommy was the love of Kim's life. Her mentor had mentioned him more than once. She also knew that, despite other relationships she had afterward, there was never anything close to this one. "Glad you made it."

As Kim's lips left the silver ranger's, she turned and locked eyes with Jen. "We were trying to get everything done. It would have gone a lot faster if we'd had help." She said, elbowing her fiancé a bit.

"I helped." Tommy assured her. He did what he could, but Kim seemed to be directing everyone well so he chose act the diplomat and make sure both families got out of there without incident. It turned out to be a good call since Kendall, who was plastered when she left, got in Rocky's mom's face and told her that her fiancé was hotter and better in bed than her son. He didn't know where Kendall's fiancé went, but he took it upon himself to separate the two women. He'd put his arms on Kendall and pulled her away. Much to his dismay, she turned toward him and buried her head in his chest and talked about how hot he was. He didn't know what she thought she was doing, but he now understood why Carri despised her.

"Whatever." Kim replied with a shrug. She'd actually seen him intercept Kendall but she was still going to rib him a bit.

"It doesn't matter, you're here now and we can all have a good time." Wes said as he took a swig of the beer in his hand and put his arm around his wife.

"I think that's a plan." Eric chimed in. "We've had a good night; we only had to chase away photographers and not aliens, so we owe ourselves a bit of a good time." A few years ago, he would not have been one to jump in and have fun. Now, while he was still one hundred percent serious at work, he'd relaxed a bit. Despite how much she could drive him crazy, he attributed that to Taylor.

"Right." Kim agreed as she thought about it. She wasn't sure that was a good thing. Arius was big on letting her know how he could destroy her life by destroying the lives of her friends. This wedding was the perfect place to attack. One glance at her fiancé and she could tell he was thinking the same thing. She was relieved that things went smoothly, but with the silence over the last few weeks and Arius letting the wedding go off without a hitch she worried about what the future would bring. For now, in a room full of friends, some of whom she didn't see very often, she'd try to let that go. She knew though that this peace wouldn't last. This was the calm before the storm.

* * *

A figure who was all too familiar to the rangers found himself on a distant planet, galaxy's away. He was standing over the body of an unconscious girl, the magic around her doing its work. Seconds later the girl opened her eyes.

She looked tentatively over her body. She was young, perhaps twenty-one, and without power. Still she was strong. She would do for now. She stood and looked at the creature who was glaring at her. "Where did you get the pretty shell?" she asked, gesturing to the body.

"I have connections." He replied. By connections he meant that he found a demon powerful enough and crazy enough to help him. He had to get her here, but first he had to get a suitable body. It couldn't just be any body; there was only one she'd use, one she'd survive in. To find it he had plucked one from her Miami bed in another dimension.

"Hmm." The woman practically purred, the evil in her voice showing through as she walked toward him. Much to her surprise, she was stopped dead in her tracks. "A force field?" she asked with a laugh. "You think I cannot escape from this?"

"Maybe, if you were to regain your strength." He replied. He knew she could escape; he just wasn't going to allow it. "That's only, of course, if I don't keep you weak." He said, a smile coming across his lips as his sharp teeth peeked out, the implication of torture there.

"Why bring me here only to torture me." She said with a sigh. She was smarter than him, faster; she could figure a way out of this. "Who of yours have I killed?" That had to be the reason. People were only stupid enough to come after her when it was about revenge.

"Not killed. Contained; in an orb." He replied. "Nine months ago you took her and I want her back. You do that and I'll free you. You don't and I'll torture you until this miserable shell gives out and you are left to wander aimlessly."

That's why she had a hell of a last couple of months in the first place. Wandering aimlessly; waiting for her powers to strengthen on her own so she could try again. She was almost there, however he called on her first. She'd love to keep this body and be free, but there was one problem. "It wasn't me. I was without a body nine months ago. I didn't orb anyone." That wasn't her usual style anyway. Orbing was so... easy and neat. It took the fun out of everything.

"Do not lie to me demon. You were spotted with the orb." He hissed, glaring at her.

"Spotted?" she repeated as she thought about. If someone saw her with an orb… well that narrowed it down to two possibilities. She threw her head back and let out a laugh. "It wasn't me, but I can tell you who it was." She said, using the power she had to reach out into the universe. "Perfect." She said as she realized exactly where she was. "I want to battle with the woman who stole your friend. You want your friend back. Perhaps you should let me out of here so we can work together."

He thought for a moment, unsure if he could trust her or not. Then again, she was still weak. He'd know quickly if she planned to betray him or not. If so, he'd simply take her out. "Fine. However one false move and I will see to it that you go right back where you came from."

"I expect no less." She replied, knowing that when she was strong enough, if she chose to make a move he couldn't stop her. As he went to let down the force field, her eyes glowed red with excitement. "Now it's time to have a little fun." An evil laugh filled the small room as she thought about all she was going to do now to get her revenge.


	15. Evil Returns

**Disclaimer:** All things related to PR belong to Saban. The character Callisto was created by Universal. All things stemming from K's world, including Kemora and the DG, belong to KSuzie. Everything else belongs to me.  
**Authors Notes:** I feel like I am getting slower and slower on these chapters lol but life is hectic for me right now. Thank you all for sticking with me! It means a lot to see you all still reading and reviewing :)

Dark Inheritance  
"Evil Returns"

Deimos sat in his throne room. His patience was wearing thin. What should have been a simple operation had ballooned into something quite aggravating. He wouldn't give up though; he wouldn't say it wasn't worth it. The prize… well the prize was the most coveted prize in the galaxy. The prize was the ruler of all evil, a title he hadn't figured out a way to earn, a title he could only hope to marry into.

Kaycea was his ticket to what he had been searching for, and to all the power that came with it. A marriage to Kaycea, the only rightful heir to the throne left, would mean that the rest of the evil community would acknowledge him. It meant that they would come back together and stand behind his power. Technically he supposed they would be acknowledging her claim to their throne, a throne that has sat vacant for years now with no one wielding the power to claim it, however he merely had to step forward with her then push her out of the way.

Then he would truly be the ruler of the galaxy. He'd have the forces of evil on his side, and they would conquer the universe. Most planets would bow down to him, those that didn't would succumb easily. Even Grumm, with all his conquests across the galaxy would have to acknowledge the United Alliance of Evil and his rule of it.

It sounded simple. Marry Kaycea. Someone with Maligore's demon DNA running through their veins would be easy to convince to take their rightful place as monarch, despite any other affiliations they might have. As for marrying him, well that would be a condition of leaving her home planet alone. Should she not agree to that part of the deal, he would have no problems trying to figure out how to contain her while making her watch the destruction of her home world.

He sent Arius to do it. He had complete faith in him. After all, this was the demon that he had sent on every other mission to help him get to the throne. While those missions hadn't gotten him much closer, he had succeeded at each and every one of them, even the ones that Deimos himself considered impossible. He thought this was an easier task. Threaten her loved ones and use that as leverage to retrieve Kaycea. However Arius saw failure after failure. Either Arius underestimated the Muirantian or he was not as powerful as he led him to believe.

Either way, he had seen enough. Arius's failures would no longer be tolerated. Arius himself was now digesting in the belly of his favorite pet, a process that would take ages and leave him alive for most of it. It was a delightfully cruel way to dispose of someone, and it guaranteed that no one would be anxious to follow in his footsteps.

Now he had to do something he rarely did. Go to the front lines and handle the situation himself. However he wasn't going to do that without having a foolproof plan, something that would force Kaycea to come back with him and be his bride.

He had an idea, something based on whispers that had circled the galaxy for years. He had to confirm his suspicious though and seek out the answer before moving forward. He never jumped into battle without knowing the outcome and he certainly wouldn't jump into this one if he didn't have the answer laid out.

It made for a longer delay than he would like between Arius's departure and him arrival. Shax was still looming above Earth in his ship. He had ordered him not to attack; he didn't want to waste the resources until he was ready. However Shax served as a constant reminder to Kaycea that she had not been forgotten.

He wanted to go introduce himself to his bride to be. He wasn't going to go before he was ready. However once he got word that things were falling into place, he may go ahead and make an appearance before the pieces were completely set. At that point there would be no turning back. He'd know what he needed and he would be ready to go forward. Then Kaycea would have no choice but to follow him, otherwise she would risk anything and everything she ever loved. He was going to have the upper hand, and he was going to walk away with his Muirantian bride no matter what the cost.

* * *

The black and white rangers sat at an outside table at Bulkmeier's, waiting for the last of their lunch trio to arrive. They had both taken off early for lunch, which was easy given the fact that they were their own bosses. Now they were relaxing, waiting for their friend to arrive.

Jason was the first to start conversation. "I'm surprised you came back," he said. He knew Carri had spent a week relaxing at the beach. It had to have been a lot better than the craziness that surrounded real life.

She let out a chuckle. "Believe me, I contemplated staying forever." It would have been nice, but it wasn't anywhere close to a legitimate option. She and Rocky stayed for a week, returning late Sunday evening. Unlike Rocky, who got up that morning and went straight back to work, she was moving slowly back into real life. However she knew she had to assimilate back into reality which is why she was no longer laying on a beach relaxing. "There is too much for me to do here. Plus without me here, who would there be to drive you crazy?"

Jason rolled his eyes as an approaching female caught his attention. "Don't worry; I'm sure she'd handle that department nicely."

"Look at you," Kim said, noticing her friend's darker skin tone as she approached. She used to get really tan in college, but it had been a while since she'd had the opportunity to lay out worry free. Much like the rest of them, between work and rangers and trying to keep up with everybody else it didn't leave much time for relaxation.

She caught her friend looking at her skin tone and she grinned. "I know," she said with enthusiasm. She noticed that morning when she put a white undershirt on. It was kind of nice. It reminded her of college.

The red ranger took a seat. "I take it you had a good week."

"It was. It was kinda sad to have to come back yesterday but at the same time I am glad to be home," she said with a smile. "I am surprised we got a quiet week. I didn't see anything on the news – I assume you guys didn't hide anything from me."

She shot daggers at her two friends, an indication that if they had fought without her she'd kill them. She wanted to relax, but not to the point where she missed ranger duties. Jason slung his hands up as if to say "not me" and Kim shook her head no. The white ranger frowned. "Aruis is missing perfect opportunities. I really don't like that at all."

"Neither do I," Jason grumbled. Like it or not, his friend's wedding was the perfect excuse to try something. All those past and present rangers in one spot, and the Planetary team for the most part distracted. However there wasn't any sign of life from Arius's ship. They had to be planning something and he didn't think he was going to like it.

"We are all experienced," Kim started, trying to think of what she could say in a restaurant, "I think we all know what this means. Or what it could mean." She frowned as she thought over the possibilities. A week went by after they saved the Jungle Fury team and they hadn't heard anything. Kim started to worry then. Now she didn't really want to think about what Arius might be planning.

"It means we have to buckle down and prepare for the worst." Carri seriously doubted Arius was going to take that much time off and come back with nothing more than another monster attack. Whatever scheme he was going to hit them with would be good.

"I want to know why he hasn't even said hello," Jason voiced one of his concerns. Even when Rita and Zedd worked on some of their worst plots, at the very least they'd send Goldar down to remind them they were still there.

"He doesn't need to," Carri pointed out as her eyes jerked up toward the sky. "We aren't going to forget he's there." Especially with so much at stake. She didn't want to say it out loud, but she knew it was in the back of everyone's minds. They weren't just fighting to keep an empire from reuniting. They were fighting for Kim. It wasn't just about not letting any harm come to their friend, they also stood between her and the countless other galaxies and universes she could destroy should she take control of the evil empire.

"I certainly haven't forgotten," Kim said with a frown. She could never forget, not for long anyway. "Tommy and I have talked about it. Billy has done detailed reports. We can't get a read on anything. We can't detect any kind of movement, no one coming in or out. Within the first week there were a few communications signals Billy's equipment picked up, but there has been nothing since."

"I didn't say we were going to forget," Jason grumbled, irritated that they thought he might forget. "Guys like him usually like to remind us."

"I agree," Kim replied, getting a nod from the black ranger. "It's not like we can go ask him why he's leaving us alone." It was too risky to go to his ship, even though she had the ability. He was smart enough to figure out how to contain her if he caught her. She could be walking right into an orb of some kind.

"So then we wait," Jason said a hint of finality in his voice.

"We wait," Carri agreed. She didn't like the waiting, but it couldn't be helped.

Kim frowned, thoughtful for a moment. She didn't like the waiting any more than they did. However there wasn't much they could do about it. Instead of dwell on it, she changed the subject. "So how is the movie going?"

"Better than expected," Carri said with a grin as she tried to forget about Arius for the moment. "I think we are going to wrap principal photography before we thought. It should keep us right on target with our release date."

"Early?" Jason questioned. That was news to him. He didn't suppose it should matter to him all that much, but it was still his movie and he still wanted to know when things changed.

"Brian filled me in while we were flying home. We're ahead of where we are supposed to be. I double checked everything. It's only going to be a week or two, but still that's a little bit of pressure taken off of post-production." Even with a one hour TV show post production could be a pain. It would be great to end up with a week or two extra to add to the scheduled allotment for post-production. It was no guarantee, but she was fairly confident she'd be ready to roll the movie out when the studio wanted to.

"That's great," Kim said with a grin. "So I imagine you are going to be busy this fall."

"More than usual," Carri replied. Work was going to keep her going but she liked it that way. "Between post production, the new show, and the second season of Traveling In Style – which reminds me, I need to get with Ashley. She has some designs she wants to put the hosts in for the fall. Have you seen them?"

"She mentioned them but she's hording them to herself until she shows you," Kim said with a grin. She tried to convince Ashley that she was on the need to know list. However the owner of the firm she worked for wouldn't budge. Though she did promise to bring them to Kim after Carri saw them, or at least have Sandy pass them along with her assignment. She wanted Kim to work on a campaign for them that would air as they were revealed on TV.

"Forget the clothes," Jason said as he glanced at his friend, "new show?" She had been talking about an idea she had for ages, however she wouldn't disclose it to them.

"Dad and I finally came to an agreement," she said, the excitement clear in her eyes. They had been passing ideas back and forth for almost a year. He liked where she was going, but there were details to work out, and between everything she had going on she was slow to respond. Although she was technically her own company, it was a young company and she was a young producer and her father wouldn't let her start on anything he didn't approve of. "I'm going to put a pilot together this fall and shop it around for next year."

"Shop it around?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"To the networks," she said proudly. She didn't know if it would be good enough to get picked up. However the buzz from the Luke Kirk movie would give her a boost. She had a feeling they'd at least give it a try. She owed Jason for that, but she wasn't going to tell him.

"What's it about?" Kim asked, trying to dig that tidbit out of her once more.

She shook her head no. "I'm not jinxing it." She still had a lot to do before she got to the point where she was shooting a pilot. Having an idea that she and her father agreed on didn't make it official, it could still fall apart before it ever got started. Her father never discussed a show with anyone that didn't absolutely have to know until everything was signed and he was officially pulling the elements together to work toward a pilot. The theory was the more you talked about an idea, the more the chance that nobody was ever going to see it. It was a silly superstition, but one her dad believed in and she was inclined to agree with him on that one. It had worked for him for nearly forty years; she was going to let it work for her too.

"Car you're killing me," Jason said, watching as she leaned back in the chair with a smug look on her face. They had been bugging her about the topic of the show she wanted to do for months and she wasn't budging. "Not even a hint?"

"If I tell you it will be your bad karma that screws it up. If everything works out right, by the end of the month we will have the financials straight which means we'll have the funding to get our feet wet which means I can officially go forward and start hiring people to put a pilot together which means I can tell you guys my idea."

"Or I could just jump around, check it out, and come back and report to Jason," Kim said, a smirk on her face.

Jason laughed as Carri reached over and hit her friend. "Ok Tommy," she said emphasis on the Silver Ranger's name as she rolled her eyes.

Kim simply shook her head. Unlike her fiancé, she'd never actually use her powers to sneak into Carri's office and dig into her business. "So then I suppose we are going to see you again next year some time?"

"Nah," she replied with a smile. "I mean I am going to have my hands full no doubt, but I will still make time for you guys… and Rocky, and fighting. Besides, I am not going to be complete overseer on everything. I'll approve ideas for my old show but Brian is going to do more day to day with that. He and I both are working on the movie, plus I think the studio has a few people they want to send over once post production starts." Brian had definitely become an extension of her at work. It was a relief to have an assistant producer she could share in that much work with and trust to get it done. Plus Mollie was still keeping her office running as her administrative assistant. Between the two of them she could breathe easy and know she could have more than one project going at a time. Of course if this new show took off, she was going to have to hire more help.

"If you don't have time, don't worry. I've got deadlines to meet for book three anyway," Jason said, a wolfish grin spreading over his face as his two girls moaned and groaned. "Look at the bright side, a third book makes the potential for a third movie and a third giant paycheck for you guys." The second book had already met with so much success; a movie deal had been signed by all parties. That was given that the first movie didn't tank, but there was so much positive buzz already they'd be surprised if it did.

"You're compensating us Jason but that doesn't make it any better," Kim said. Although she supposed Carri wasn't really being compensated. The White Ranger was actually working for the paycheck she got on Jason's film. Technically she was a movie consultant, although the only thing she'd consulted on was what the food table needed which apparently was enough to earn her a good sized paycheck.

"So you say," Jason replied as he looked from one girl to the other, "but I have a feeling your expanded wardrobes beg to differ."

Carri and Kim glanced at each other. They had used the first movie check as an excuse to go shopping, their first major shopping trip since they returned to Earth. It was really nice to get to go out again, and they both filled the car with their shopping bags. It was the only trip like that they had time for since returning to Angel Grove a year and a half ago.

They knew they were guilty of stuffing their closets with clothes that technically Jason's book got them. Instead of trying to defend themselves, they started to giggle. Jason chuckled as well as their waiter approached. He was glad the three of them could come out and have lunch. There was so much going on both with rangering and their everyday lives. He didn't want to lose the two girls he considered sisters like he did after college.

The laughter quieted down and they turned to order, trying to quickly get food in so that the three of them could try and get some work done that day.

* * *

Several towns over another lunch was going on at a quiet café, this one between the pink ranger and her husband. They had ordered their meals and were sitting there making small talk, although it was obvious that the head of the Silver Guardians had something on his mind.

"So what's going on?" Jen asked, glancing at her husband.

Wes gave her a smile. "Nothing. Can't a husband just ask his wife out to lunch?"

"Not my husband," she replied, narrowing her eyes and looking at him. He met her eyes and she gave him a smile. She knew better. If she wanted lunch with Wes it was well planned and never spontaneous. It wasn't that he didn't like being spontaneous. However on the days he went to work he was busy from the minute he left the house until the minute he returned. Being in charge of the Silver Guardians meant he kept a full plate, and usually lunch was whatever he had brought in that he could eat on the fly.

"Fine," he said, putting his hands up, a gesture that suggested he'd surrender. He wanted to get through lunch first before having this conversation, but it was obvious she wouldn't give him that choice. "I talked to Tripp today."

Ever since Jen decided to stay in the past, Wes had kept up communications with Trip. Two to four times a year the green ranger would call under the guise of checking in to make sure all was still calm and that there weren't any developments in the past stemming from Time Force's battle that would affect the future. In the future, in Trip's time, not even a year had passed since the team helped with the Mut-orgs. It was why he got away with the phone calls. Time Force was concerned as well with the lingering effects of their visits. They were always worried that some sort of time wave would overtake the future and drastically change things.

In reality Trip was calling to discretely fill him in on what was going on at Time Force. They spoke in codes; using key words that they had chosen the last time Trip was in the past. The goal was to make sure Jen was still off of Time Forces radar. If they knew she was here, Wes would never see it coming and Trip's calls wouldn't matter. However if there was something that got on their radar, it would be his job to make sure he put a stop to it. So far the calls had been nothing more than two old friends chatting, but he was afraid that was about to change.

Her heart started to race as it did every time Wes talked to Trip. She worried she was about to be found out at any moment. She didn't know what she'd do. "And?" she questioned, leaning forward in her seat. She was hoping it was a good news phone call. Katie got promoted. Lucas got engaged.

"There is an interest in the Planetary Rangers that comes from them keeping tabs on me," Wes explained. He had helped the Planetary team before he knew his wife would join their ranks. His helping was apparently a twist in the timeline caused by their going back into the past in the first place. There was a spike of energy that came from the Chronomorpher because it was still a Time Force morpher and they still registered any use he got out of it. They were curious as to why, and tried to find that spot in history.

Jen nodded. This she had almost expected. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. They won't find anything." They didn't have much to go on before S.P.D. There was sporadic news footage of some of the battles the rangers fought, most of which was compiled from the little bit of footage Tommy archived that was saved long enough to end up in the S.P.D. databases. The rest of it came from what Kim had given them, which wasn't a lot of anything. Kim had filled in some of what they were lacking with knowledge from her time as a ranger, however she left out a good bit. Time Force assumed it was because she wasn't on the planet. This left them to speculate on how to fill in the gaps, but they were never able to confirm any of it. The Muirantian shared nothing about those she served with other than names. The only one she knew anything about was Tommy, and that was because her teacher talked about their relationship in a private, confidential setting.

"How can you be so certain?" Wes questioned. He was worried for her. He refused to lose her.

"Trust me," Jen replied. What she was really saying was trust Kim, who very intentionally made sure the history was written so they had no idea she was the pink ranger.

"Trip knows it's you," Wes said as he crossed his arms over his chest. Jen's face hardened as she thought about it and Wes continued. "They had bits of archived footage. That's how they knew why I used my morpher. They've seen clips of the whole team in action. He figured it out."

"Trip isn't going to turn me in," Jen assured him, although her husband didn't look like that made him feel any better. "I'm not surprised he recognized me. He fought with me – for me – for a long time. You learn the fighting style of those you serve with. You know this."

"Trip may not turn you in but that doesn't mean Time Force isn't going to investigate," Wes pointed out. What if they noticed the same thing Trip did? What if they did everything they could to verify the identity of the pink ranger?

"Let them investigate. They can't find anything. Kim wrote the history that way. I'm not there. Believe me, I've studied her teams." He had never seen the Time Force archives; he didn't know how little information there was on the individual rangers, if there was any information at all.

"What's to stop them from coming back and checking for themselves?" Wes questioned. Maybe her mentor made sure they couldn't discover her in the future, but that didn't mean they couldn't come back to the past.

"They have no reason to," Jen assured him. She could understand the interest if they realized Wes morphed again. According to Trip, they took an interest every time the Chronomorpher was activated, such as in the red ranger mission. However they would let it drop once they realized there was no time wave coming, that nothing Wes did was a threat to erase the future.

"That doesn't mean they won't," Wes said worry for his wife getting the best of him. "If they come they won't have to look very far. You won't have anywhere to hide."

"It isn't going to happen. I know you don't know her well, but Kim will protect me." Of this she was certain. Her mentor made sure she was placed back in time for a reason. She wouldn't let Time Force discover her, not unless the future depended on it. That was the one thing that sat in the back of her mind, however if that point came she didn't think it would be for years.

"She has no reason to," Wes countered. "She's only known you for a few months and you have put a lot of faith in her."

"Not that Kim, although she understands the importance of my being a part of her team and she will protect me," Jen said as she thought about it. The Kim of this time was just coming into her powers, just starting to figure out who she was. However she knew who she didn't want to be – the queen of evil – and she knew the only way to prevent that was to keep her team strong, a team that included Jen whether she liked it or not. Although Kim liked her and they got along well, but that was neither here nor there. That was the young Kim, the one that hadn't been her mentor yet. "I'm talking about the time guardian. This is part of what she does for a living. When things happen in time that aren't supposed to, she fixes them." It was an oversimplified explanation and her job usually only applied to her mentor's current time, and not even always in her home dimension, but it was close enough.

"I don't think," Wes stopped short when their waitress walked over and placed their lunches in front of them. When she left, he shifted his thought. "I'm worried about you."

"I know," she replied as she reached across the table and grabbed his hand that sat next to his plate. "As far as my job is concerned, you don't need to worry. There is a lot you don't understand about the future but I have faith in my teacher, faith in the power – this is the right decision."

Wes turned his hand over and caught hers in it, giving her hand a squeeze. "I hope you're right." That was the last mention of that subject as the duo moved to eat lunch and talk about more pleasant things.

* * *

Billy sat in his office, his mind running over everything he was currently worried about. On the forefront of his thoughts was his wife's pregnancy. Everything had been going well so far. However she was only in the second trimester, there was plenty of room for things to go wrong.

He supposed most parents worried every day about the wellbeing of their unborn child. Most parents though worried about the tragedies they knew could come, despite the odds being in their favor. He was worried about the tragedies he couldn't foresee. He didn't think the effect of the coins would ever wear off and if it did, well there was his mishap with his invention and his treatment on Aquitar to worry about.

He thought they'd both end up sterile, but by some miracle they weren't. That didn't mean that their time under the powers influence hadn't changed them, affected their systems in ways they couldn't see. He couldn't say with one hundred percent certainty that Trini's body could carry a child to full term. There were so many intricacies of pregnancy that could have been altered that they don't know about.

Once a week he brought his wife to the Command Chamber to do an evaluation with the best medical equipment on the planet. She thought he was being silly and overcautious. She thought that the getting pregnant was the hard part, that the rest would take its natural course. He couldn't share her optimism. He never went into detail about his concerns with his wife, just asked her to humor him, which she did.

His second worry was Arius, or rather the lack of Arius on Earth. He had missed keen opportunities. He didn't know what happened after the incident with the Jungle Fury team. Something was keeping him away, keeping his forces away. Worst case scenario, he was plotting something big and had plans to make them pay. Best case – well anyway he looked at it there was no best case. He hadn't left – he monitored Arius's ship as much as possible – which meant that there was going to be something bad in their future. They had no way of predicting it and he didn't like that at all.

The next worry on his list was his job, his real job, the one that paid him. His worries were no different than those of any other person with a paying job; he just had a lot on his plate. Having Dr. Manx here certainly helped, but he still stayed pretty busy.

The phone rang, jolting him out of his thoughts. He glanced down at the display and saw the extension for the lab. Picking the receiver up, he greeted the only person that could be on the other end. "Dr. Manx, I was just thinking about your work."

"That's a good thing I hope," Kat took a moment to joke with him, even though her call was somewhat important. He chuckled and she waited for his silence before she continued. "I'm having a problem in the lab. Could you come down here?"

"Of course," Billy replied. He hung up the phone and quickly exited his office, heading past his private lab and toward the elevators. He pressed the button for the elevator, and moments later he was headed down three floors. He exited the hallway and veered off toward the private labs. Finding the door he was looking for, he used his fingerprint scanner and typed in his unique ever changing code before entering.

Kat looked up at him, obviously perplexed. He gave her a small smile, as if to assure her that whatever was going on would be ok. "What's the problem?"

She gestured toward the piece of equipment she was standing in front of. "I was testing something out that I have been working on. I was trying to use an external source to test short term effectiveness but I am getting interference."

Billy frowned. While a pain that's not an emergency. They could figure out what it was and cancel it out easily. "Have you tried scanning for the problem?" he asked as he walked up to the computer and started working.

"Of course," she replied, insulted at the insulation that she wasn't smart enough to do that. "It's coming from Angel Grove. I just can't nail it down."

"Angel Grove?" Billy repeated, watching as she nodded. Angel Grove was far enough away that it shouldn't interfere with anything here. If it was, it would be simple to figure out what the problem was. It would be big enough that it would make all their equipment go crazy.

He did his own search, following almost the exact same pattern that Kat did. He was quickly coming to the same conclusions. There was something going on in Angel Grove. Something large enough to throw everything here off, yet he couldn't nail down a location. He got a general range, but that wasn't helpful.

He tried to pull up a visual of the affected area, but that wasn't showing anything. Whatever this was, it should be quite obvious. Something wasn't right here. "Perhaps we should take some hand held scanners to Angel Grove," he was thinking aloud.

"I agree. We need to nail this down," Kat replied. If it was something this big, they weren't the only ones having trouble. If they didn't contain it, it was going to spread. Eventually it would cause such interference that airplanes would start falling out of the sky.

"Let's collect the scanners. We'll use the Command Chamber to teleport," he said, his mind made up. It was going to be too far of a drive for something this important.

"Got it," Kat replied, rushing off to find the equipment they needed.

* * *

Billy and Kat teleported down to Angel Grove to try and discover what was tainting Kat's experiments. It had to be something powerful, however things weren't adding up and the stronger the signal was getting the more uncomfortable the former blue ranger felt. Nothing was coming into sight and that couldn't be possible.

"Here," Kat said, the instrument in her hand indicating the core of the energy spike causing the disturbance. For reasons she didn't understand, she shivered. There was something wrong about this spot – she just couldn't put her finger on it.

Billy's visual scan confirmed what all his computer sensors did. There wasn't anything here. Nothing he could see, nothing he could touch, and nothing the scanners could touch either. Just an odd cluster of energy that was interfering with everything. He was hoping something was cloaked, an instrument emitting energy that would make this make sense.

"I don't understand," he said thoughtfully as he ran his fingers through his hair. For the energy to be this concentrated in one location something had to be causing the spike.

"It's here," Kat assured him. Her scanner didn't lie. There was no mistaking that the source of her frustrations was in this innocent looking patch of grass somewhere. "Maybe we can find a way to get it to reveal itself." She assumed it was coming from something hidden. Perhaps they could design an experiment to track deep into the heart of the source.

As if the energy heard her, it started visibly cackling around them. The sparks turned a vibrant shade of red, lighting up the sky before parting to reveal a leather clad figure. "All you have to do is ask," she purred, looking at both the people standing in front of her. One she didn't know. The other she knew all too well. "Billy."

"Kemora," he replied, his voice reflecting a calmness he didn't feel. Slowly he unclipped his communicator from his wrist. He had to warn the others, but he didn't know if she'd let him do it. He was going to have to take a more indirect approach.

"How disappointing, I was hoping Kim would find me first." The little energy show had been all for the resident Kim. Her powers were stronger than the last time they faced each other, she could feel them. She was hoping her little show would catch her attention. Catching Billy's attention was just as good she supposed. After all, she wasn't here for the kill shot. She was a cat with a mouse, and she wanted to play.

"You have me to deal with instead," Billy said, moving his hands quickly and thrusting the communicator toward Kat. "Ninjetti, wolf!" He rarely got to call on his powers anymore but it felt good to use them again. He took two confident steps to Kemora, speaking back to Kat as he did. "Go warn the others."

"One of Dulcea's pets coming to play." The demon was amused. The Ninjetti stood no chance against her and he knew it. He was using it to send his pet to go get the rangers, but there was no need for that. Kim should know she was here by now.

"Call me a pet if you wish," Billy said as he moved to attack, "but that doesn't take away from what I'm about to do to you."

"Watch me kill you?" Kemora questioned, an amused look crossing her face as she took a few strides toward the Ninjetti. He moved toward her and as they met the fight began. She was holding back, allowing him to think he was evenly matched as he issued a series of kicks and punches. It didn't take long before she got bored. "Let's finish this," she said as she reached out and grabbed him by the throat.

Before she could do anything, a force hit her hard and she went flying. She didn't have to look to know where that power came from. She pulled herself to her feet, dusting her leather off as she spoke. "It's about time you came," she said as she turned to face her attacker.

"You were easy to find. Just go to the site that makes my skin crawl," Kim replied. It was kind of the truth. She had felt Kemora's power burst from her office. There were only two other beings she knew of that could use Muirantian energy like that. Last time she checked, K wouldn't simply pop in and do it in her backyard.

"Thank you I try," she said, a sticky sweet smile curling up on her face. "Now if you'll excuse me, wolfy boy and I have some business to attend to and then it will be our turn."

"This doesn't involve Billy," Kim said, her voice threatening as she reached to the skies to call for her staff.

"It involves Billy. It involves all of your friends, it always does," Kemora replied. This is one of the few Kim's whose friends who she hadn't killed. It disappointed her - that was always part of the fun. Their paths had crossed when she was younger and she couldn't do it then. Now she was Muirantian, a being from the pit just like herself and K, and it made it that much harder. Both her team and K's team were well too intact for her liking.

Kim gripped her Phadosian Staff tightly. The truth was Kemora was right. It was going to involve her friends; the demon never simply attacked her no matter what universe or what Kim she was looking at. "Perhaps. But you'll have to get through me first." To prove her point, using a trick she picked up while working with Dulcea she used her staff to channel some of her Planetary powers. A red ring of fire shot out of the staff and surrounded Kemora. Dulcea would call it an unnecessary of a display of power, especially against the demon, but it showed she was pissed.

"Little Kimmie's getting angry," Kemora said, a hint of amusement in her voice. She wasn't sure how long it had been since they battled last. She was fairly certain her powers were still the stronger set, even in her weaker state. It didn't matter though, she was good at what she did and she'd find a way to win.

As Kemora lifted herself above the flames, six teleportation beams caught her eye. "Looks like your friends have arrived." They were standing behind Kim, and she landed softly on a patch of grass in front of the flames. The fire disappeared and Kemora smiled sweetly at them. "Long time no see."

"Not long enough." Carri grumbled. The last thing she expected to see that morning, the last thing she wanted to see, was Kemora hanging around.

"Good to see you again too," she replied sweetly. She hadn't forgotten that it was Kim's best friend who was so helpful in getting her thrown from her body the last time they met.

Tommy took a few steps forward so that he was equal with Kim. "Too bad it is going to be such a short visit," Tommy said, his warning to her there. She simply shrugged her shoulders and he continued. "Don't get used to the body. You won't have it long."

"I always forget how important you think you are," she spat as she glared at him. Tommy who was the source of all her anguish, the man who ripped her to pieces, the man who had killed her both literally and figuratively was standing there and glared back at her. She just glanced at him, then turned toward Kim's other side where Carri was standing. It was so hard to choose. And she could only pull this trick once.

Kim would be the obvious target, although Kim was Muirantian and she'd be immune. It would hurt like hell but it wouldn't kill her. She needed a human. Or two. Perhaps she could use two. If she was at full power it would be easy. Splitting up the target was going to weaken her more than she'd like, but it would be so much fun. Besides, her back up would be here soon.

Mind made up, Kemora leaped up and landed in the center of the rangers, using her powers to scatter all but two of them. She her targets at the same time she hit the others, only she wrapped the silver and white rangers in red. The light show she was creating made it hard for the others to figure out what was going on. Of course the noises of pain they were making probably gave it away.

Kim knew something was wrong the minute she saw the red energy. She could feel its power, and she rushed to get two of the people closest two her out of its grasp. Kemora had channeled too much power into her friends; she knew it before she got there. If she could stop her, they still had a chance.

Before she got there Kemora released them. Much to the demon's surprise, she was met with the distinctive sounds of panther and falcon as a yellow and white light flashed. It didn't matter though, whatever their spirit animals thought they were doing it was too late. They were as good as dead now.

"No!" Kim yelled as she approached, her knees hitting the ground between her two friends in the same spot she was standing only moments ago. Kemora approached and Kim used every ounce of power she had to block her as she felt for a pulse. She couldn't feel it, couldn't feel life from either of them. They needed help, and she used their communicators to teleport them to the Command Chamber. As she stood she noticed the flash of white light that followed as the blue Ninjetti left as well.

"What have you done Kemora," she hissed as her friends surrounded the demon. At the moment she wasn't thinking clearly, logic wasn't in control. All she wanted to do was rip her head from her shoulders and pull her apart from the inside out.

Kemora. The name registered in Jen's brain as she watched with the others. She knew exactly who the demon was, the woman that tormented her mentor since she was a teenager. She didn't register it until now. She supposed she should have; there couldn't be many Kim doppelgangers out there that would do this. Kemora was the only one out to destroy them, and while she didn't know what happened to the other two members of her team it was clear from the look on everyone's faces that she was doing a good job.

"Revenge," Kemora said as her eyes locked Kim's. "It was fun," she practically purred.

"How dare you," Rocky said, his horror at watching what just unfolded throwing judgment out the window as he ran to attack her.

"Rocky no!" Kim warned. Her senses were starting to come back to her. She was the only one who could defeat the demon; the others would just get themselves killed. "Leave this to me."

"Like hell," Jason said, stepping toward the blue ranger who had stopped dead in his tracks.

"If it's a fight you want it's a fight you'll get," Kemora assured them. "Just not with me… not right now anyway I have batteries to recharge. However my friend wants his shot."

Just like that Kemora disappeared, and in her place stood a figure most of the rangers were all too familiar with. "Great," Jason grumbled through clenched teeth. It was bad enough that they had to deal with the return of one thorn in their side.

"How nice to see you all again," the creature spoke, his gaze turning from one ranger to the next. "It appears as though things have changed quite a bit since I was last here."

"Cratus," Kim said sharply, having no desire to deal with their old foe at the moment, "what possessed you to crawl out from under your rock and join us?"

"Callisto," he said sharply, his eye's meeting Kim's. There was no denying the red ranger knew where she was. Now that they were down two members of their team, it would be easy to beat it out of her before passing her on to Kemora.

"Even if we knew where the crazy blonde bitch was we wouldn't tell you," Jason spoke. If Cratus thought Kemora trapped Callisto, then chances are this entire mess is his fault. His fingers curled into tight fists by his side. This was someone they could attack, and he glanced over at the blue ranger, silently giving him the signal that they were going to pummel something.

"If it's a fight you want it's a fight you'll get," Cratus assured them, echoing Kemora's earlier words. Suddenly a group of Cirranadrones appeared out of nowhere, surrounding the circle of rangers both inside and out with the creatures. The look of shock on Kim's face wasn't well hidden and Cratus smiled. "You think Callisto would let her entire army get destroyed? She is smarter than you give her credit for."

"Thanks for bringing them around. It gives us a chance to finish them off now," she said as she glanced around at the other four rangers. Zhane, Rocky and Jason clearly looked like they were ready to jump into action and finally take Cratus down. She could tell Jen was trying to sort through this, and she supposed they would owe her an explanation later as to where Kemora and Cratus came from. Now wasn't the time for that. Now was the time for fighting. "Planetary rangers, power up!"

Five flashes of light flew around the circle as the Cirranadrones moved to attack. By the time they threw out the first punches, they were met by gloved ranger hands. The rangers were heavily outnumbered, but the opponents they were fighting were easier than the Keresecks they had gotten used to of late.

Cratus moved off to the side, and every time one of the rangers thought they had defeated enough Cirranadrones to make an opening more appeared. It was enough to make Jason groan several times. Apparently some part of the universe was still cranking out the damn things and the rangers couldn't defeat them fast enough.

Kim was working hard on a plan as they fought the things for what felt like hours. Before she got a chance to initiate anything, another figure showed up on the battle field. This woman used her power to blast Cratus back. "Rhianna!" Kim scolded. Mystic Mother would have a heart attack if she saw her daughter up here fighting.

"I came to help," she said as she glared at the creature that was her ally when she fought against the rangers. She wanted to come the moment Cratus arrived. The Mystic Realm was buzzing with the return of Kemora and the impending fight with Kim. When she peaked on that she saw Cratus. Getting to the surface wasn't easy; she first had to sneak past her mother.

"You," Cratus said with a snarl, glaring at her as he stood up. "You abandoned us." If it weren't for her defying her nature they would have defeated the rangers and he would have figured out how to find Callisto a long time ago.

"I chose what was right," she replied. She watched as he marched toward her. She threw her shoulders back, trying to come across as the woman he followed, the woman who she hoped he was scared to fight. "I am more powerful than when you last saw me. If you know what's best you'll take your army and leave."

"Perhaps I should just take you and leave," he hissed as he ran toward her. To his surprise she didn't move, simply prepared for an attack. He didn't get the chance though as another woman appeared and hit him with another magical attack. He stood, deciding that he was done for now. They had accomplished what they set out to do. Get the rangers attention, and prove that they can and will destroy the team. That should give him the leverage to get Callisto's location before Kemora gets what she wants. Decision made, he took off, leaving the rangers to deal with the rest of the Cirranadrones.

"You, young lady are grounded," Mystic Mother said, ignoring the rest of the battle as she turned to look at her daughter. She could kill Rhianna for running up to the surface to face Cratus. She worried that he'd try to take her back, to turn her evil against her will. It wouldn't be the first time in history that something like that happened.

"But mom," Rhianna whined, throwing her arms up into the air, "I was coming to help Kim. Cratus is my problem, it's only fair."

The worst part was, in a way she was right. She couldn't argue that point. Instead she sighed and put her hands to her head. She could feel another headache coming on. She closed her eyes briefly, opening them again when she heard her student call her name. "Sorry for the interruption," Mystic Mother apologized to Kim, noticing immediately that all the Cirranardones were gone.

"It was unexpected," Kim paused, knowing that it was unexpected for Mystic Mother as well, "but we appreciate any assistance we can get."

The other woman nodded, grabbing her daughter's arm. "All the same, I am going to take her home then I am going to lie down for a bit," she said as the two of them disappeared.

A smile came across Kim's face as she thought about events surrounding mother and daughter. That smile quickly faded when she remembered why they appeared in the first place. "We have to get back to the Command Chamber now," she said, glancing briefly at the others. She didn't wait to see if they were going to agree, she simply teleported herself up, saying a silent prayer everything was alright.

* * *

When they first arrived in the Command Chamber, the red ranger noticed two things. One, their friends were lying on medical tables, and two, the person that belonged to the strange voice that paged her was standing over her fiancé.

She shot the strange woman a look, but there was no time for an explanation. Billy seemed to trust her; he was working with her after all. She'd get to that in a minute. First things first. "Are they alright?" she asked as she moved toward Tommy. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rocky approach his wife, the look of anguish on his face obvious.

"I," Billy paused, unsure how to answer this question, "it's complicated." They were alive, but that was the only certainty at the moment.

"That's not an answer," Kim said sharply as she looked over at her friend. "Will they live?"

"They are alive," Billy gave her the only answer he knew. "Kemora was trying to pull them apart from the inside out – organs, muscles, nerves – she should have killed them. Something kept their hearts pumping. They were weak – without the proper equipment they would have been presumed dead."

"The Ninjetti," Jason said sharply as he turned toward Kim, "their sprit animals saved their lives."

"I don't know – it seems that way," Kim replied as she thought about it. In all her training with Dulcea, she'd never heard of a spirit animal going as far as to save a life. Although they had done such a multitude of things for people they were connected to. It was certainly possible they reacted to Kemora's powers. It had happened to her once after all.

"You can fix the damage, right?" Rocky asked a hint of desperation in his voice. He couldn't lose her. After everything they'd been through… they were just starting their official lives together. He refused to let their story end this way.

"I can try," Billy said with a frown. He watched as Kat shot him a look. He knew what she was thinking, but they were already devastated, he didn't want to add to it.

Kim noticed the look the other woman gave him. She took a moment to take in her appearance. She was obviously not from this world and Billy trusted her enough with their secrets. "Who is she?" she asked aloud.

"This is Dr. Katherine Manx. She works with me in my lab. I hired her because she has a strong intergalactic scientific background," he explained as he looked at the team's leader. "I trust her," he added. It seemed like a necessary statement.

"You can call me Kat," she said as she tugged on her ear. "Easy to remember." She smiled at the red ranger, hoping to make her feel a little better about her. She would be lying if she said she wasn't somewhat excited. She wished the circumstances were better. She had been dying to get into Billy's command center and see what he had setup.

"Alright Kat," Kim said as she angled away from Billy and looked directly at her, "what is it that makes you think that you won't be able to save the lives of our teammates?" It was clearly written on her face when she looked at Billy. The former ranger was going to baby them. She was not going to let him do it.

Billy shot her a look, but she ignored him. He may be her superior at work, but this was a ranger matter and if the red Planetary Ranger was asking her for information she had to oblige. "Most of the tissue damage – the muscles, the organs – we can repair and get it on the path to regenerating itself," she paused for a second, waiting for Kim to nod in acknowledgement. "It's the damage to the nervous system that's the cause for concern. It's severe. We can fix a good portion of it, but it order for the connections to start going again it needs to regenerate. Human nervous tissue doesn't regenerate."

"So that means…" Kim's voice trailed off as she thought about it.

Kat frowned. It wasn't pleasant, but it needed to be said. "Their brains won't function; their motor skills will be lost."

"So they are just going to be vegetables?" Jason said, not hiding his anger. The demon was going to pay. He didn't care if he had Kim's skill set or not. When she showed her face again, he'd take pleasure in destroying her.

"Essentially yes," Billy finally spoke. They might wake up, but the hollow stares his once lively friends would give would be worse than if they'd died. Knowing the two of them, they would rather be dead than live like that. He was going to do everything he could to find a solution. Right now he had to get them as healthy as he could. Then he'd see if he could work on the issue with their nervous system.

"No," Rocky spoke, his voice almost a whisper, "no you have to do something."

His last words were louder, frantic, and Kim knew exactly how he felt. This couldn't end like this. Their lives couldn't end like this. She had the power to change things. She'd gotten away with it once before, she could do it again now. If she got caught… well to hell with the DG. Tommy and Carri would be alive and safe, that was more important that whatever eternal torment they could come up with. Mind made up, a red glow surrounded Kim, and without saying anything to the others she was gone.


	16. Accepting Fate

**Disclaimer:** All known characters from the Power Rangers universe belong to Saban. There is a mention of Callisto in the fic, she belongs to Universal. Anything coming from KSuzie's _The Coins Series, _including K, the DG, Thomas, Kemora and the Nova Rangers, belong to KSuize and cannot be used without her permission. All other characters belong to me.  
**Author's Notes:** Hope you guys enjoy the chapter. I know it has been a while since the last Dark Inheritance update, but writing is coming along faster these days so hopefully it won't be long before you get the next chapter. A good portion of the beginning of the chapter (that deals with how the DG works) comes from _The Coins Series_ so if you have any questions I would be happy to try an answer them but if you are looking for another fic to read, check that one out as it is a good story and it will make some of this make more sense. Also continued thanks to Hewhoreaps, who is continuing to read every chapter for me and helps me make sure it all makes sense before I throw it out here for you all. As always, thank you to all my readers for being patient with me and not forgetting about my story :)

Dark Inheritance  
"Accepting Fate"

Kim found herself in her house on the morning of Kemora's appearance. She spent time pacing back and forth across the living room. She had a few hours to figure out how she was going to stop this, how she was going to handle Kemora. She supposed she had more if she needed it, after all she was Muirantian and she could bounce around time easily.

She was trying to figure out her next course of action. She'd fought Kemora before. It got easier with her growing powers, but that didn't mean she could do it without some sort of strategy. She wanted to destroy her once and for all, but that was easier said than done. She wouldn't call it impossible, but there were those across universes that were much stronger than her that hadn't succeeded. She would simply settle for punishing her, for causing another setback, for keeping her from achieving her goals right now.

She stopped pacing when a familiar buzzing sound echoed through her living room. She knew what it was, knew what kind of trouble she was about to be in. "Hello Thomas," she said as he fully materialized in front of her.

"You didn't listen to me very well," he said, his first words only the beginning of his lecture. She hadn't done anything yet, and he was going to have to prevent her from doing something she'd regret. He'd heard about the time wave that hit this area. Revet, the moderator in charge, noted the change immediately after Kemora's appearance. He didn't report the Kemora sighting to him as he should, not surprising since he never reported the demon's presence in this dimension before, but it did get back to the Dimensional Guardians who suggested he go check it out. Not because they cared about his research and work regarding Kemora, but because they cared about the alternate. They wanted him to bring her to them, to make her officially a part of their fold. If she was going to have any more dealings with Kemora, it was going to be officially working for them. If she wouldn't agree to their terms, then they couldn't trust she wouldn't team with Kemora and they'd kill her.

At first he traveled to the point in time of the attack. He saw her on the battlefield, saw what happened to alter the timeline. He was going to wait, to take her after she left her center of command, but she disappeared. Given her earlier timeline manipulation with Trini, he had a feeling he knew where she was going. All he had to do was go back in the timeline and wait her out. He wasn't surprised when, the morning of the attack, her Muirantian signatures appeared twice in that timeline.

"I don't care what happens to me," she practically spat, "these are my friends. Kill me if you will when I'm done, I won't let Carri die, I won't let Tommy die."

"You're wrong if you think anything you do now is going to change this," Thomas said, his hard eyes meeting hers. "Kemora created a wave that changed this planet's future so drastically the DG was alerted. They won't let you interfere." Revet would be completely within his rights to snatch her up however he saw fit and deliver her to the DG for punishment. Death was most likely, although there was a small chance they'd beat her down until she agreed to submit completely to their wishes. Of course they would never allow her to return to her time, to live out her life with her friends. That would change everything, starting with their current engagement with Deimos, and he wouldn't be surprised if that would be the factor that pushed her home dimension to one devoted to evil.

"If Kemora caused a wave, why is it not within my rights to change it back?" Kim questioned, anger rising from within. If the other woman didn't obey by the rules, why should she have to?

"I understand your frustrations," he'd heard similar arguments from K, it was no surprise that her alternate felt the same way. "It is within your right to try and fix the damage Kemora caused, however you cannot change it. The demon wiped an entire conflict from the future."

The way the timeline was progressing - assuming this alternate was able to defeat Deimos, which she appeared to be doing although there was still a delicate balance there - there was a ranger team in the future that would serve under Dimitria. In the future, Inquiris was attacked by a foe so powerful that it made Grumm look weak. To protect what remained of her home planet, Dimitria went to the planet of her old ally, Zordon. It was the only place she knew to find rangers who had morphed with the original coins, as that was the only DNA that would meld with the powerful morphers she was in possession of. The only problem was the original rangers were well into their fifties.

Fortunately they had children old enough to fight, children who inherited the coin altered DNA of their parents, and she recruited them. This group included the child the alternate had with Tommy and the child of Carri, who didn't want children but had a child with Rocky after a series of events led to a birth control mishap. Those children would work with the current SPD rangers in an epic battle with far reaching consequences throughout the galaxy. Now those children now no longer existed, and in this timeline the childless Kim got word of the attacker and with the help of SPD and the Nova Rangers, she took care of him before he ever reached Inquiris.

Their battle, although not as epic, did enough throughout the galaxy to keep the timeline from being destroyed. The DG was pleased with the outcome; it ended up working more toward what they wanted anyway. Everything from that point forward essentially bounced back into its place, although the route was different from before. They were going to allow the change to stand and the only kind of clean up they were going to allow the alternate to do was to get rid of the demon before she caused any more trouble.

Kim pushed back the tears that were threatening to form. She would not cry here, not in front of Thomas. She didn't know what he meant, however she was worried now that the battle that won't happen is the one for Earth against Arius, the one that keeps her from becoming another Kemora. "So she changes things that much and I have no right to fix them?" she asked, holding her voice steady.

"You have every right to attempt to fix things from the current point of time if there is anything that needs to be fixed," Thomas said. He and K had to fix Kemora's messes all the time. They did timeline repair, something that this alternate would become familiar with. Their goal was to try to make sure a dimension stayed on one of the standard timelines, and as long as a dimension stayed on that path and as long as the DG was happy with the way it was going, technically they were not allowed to interfere. The DG is strict about their rules, however there were things they were doing that didn't exactly follow the rules. The difference was they had years of experience, they were careful and knew how not to get caught. Something of this magnitude the alternate would certainly be punished for. He was beginning to see that she would follow in K's footsteps. He had no doubt that once she became familiar with the DG she would slip around and make little changes, stabilizing words in places they weren't supposed to be touched, changing history enough to help keep worlds on the right path without doing anything the DG would ever notice.

"I don't understand," Kim said, the frustration showing through in her voice, "how can I fix anything if you won't let me stop Kemora's attack?"

Thomas nodded, not surprised she was hung up on that. However that was the last thing she would be allowed to do. They would not be happy if she put the timeline back the way it was, or close given that with something of this magnitude, there was no guarantee it would snap back at all. "When we fix timelines, we fix the damage that has been done that pulls a dimension so far off the correct path it needs help. In your case, the outcome from Kemora's interferences, while removing an important battle from the timeline, it led to something that pleased the Dimensional Guardians and they want things to be left alone."

"So then if I interfere they will kill me and see to it that they get what they want anyway?" Kim questioned, suddenly understanding.

"They are not a force to be messed with," Thomas assured her.

"So then what? I go after Kemora, only to come home to a fiancé who is never going to be able to talk to me again?" She knew who the Dimensional Guardians were, knew what they can do, and so far she didn't like them. It didn't seem right, not in the least.

"I can't tell you how to handle your future on Earth," he said, knowing exactly what it was she was coming back to. "What I can tell you is that you will accompany me to a meeting with the DG, afterwards they will allow you to see to it that Kemora is removed from your home world."

"So they are bringing me into the fold?" Kim questioned. She knew this day would come, but she was hoping it would be later rather than sooner. He nodded and she continued. "Then I can chase Kemora?"

"You may remove her from your world, yes. The interaction you have with Kemora from that point on I can't say," If anyone understood the urge to chase and kill Kemora it was him, however that wasn't their task. "I am alerted of her appearances, there is a possibility you will see her again." That wasn't entirely true. There have been several sightings of Kemora that weren't reported to him, including this alternate's first experience with the demon. Usually when he did find out it was only to repair the damage she left after she was gone.

Kim closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn't like this, not one bit. They weren't going to let her do what she felt needed to be done. However she had to listen to them, at least right now. They would kill her, then who knew what would happen on Earth. "Fine," she said as she made her mind up, "I will go with you."

"Good," Thomas said, glad that she seemed to be cooperating. He only hoped that she would not be defiant in front of the DG. "Come with me."

She nodded and prepared to follow Thomas. She wasn't sure if she fully trusted him, but she was going to have to trust him where the DG was concerned. For that reason, she was going to let him lead the way into the meeting that was going to change her life forever.

* * *

It took a good week for Kim to finish her business with the DG. As expected, they pulled her into their fold. She was Muirantian, they made it very clear that her choices were work for them or perish. She'd work for them for now, although she didn't know what exactly she had to live for. She wanted to live out Tommy's human life span with him, now she didn't know if that was possible.

Still, she agreed to behave, and between the DG and Thomas she was filled in on everything she needed to know to get started. The DG is a specialized group, one that began ten thousand years in the future when the forces of good realized that the forces of evil altered the timeline nearly twenty thousand years in the past. This led to the creation of the DG, who are dedicated to preserving the six standard timelines that stretch out among the different dimensions. Alterations to the timelines are allowed, as long as the general outcome stayed the same.

What that meant was it didn't matter who the characters were. Kim had seen the characters and the setting change often enough, even when two worlds appeared as similar as hers and K's. What did matter was that the relative theme and basic outcome was the same.

She didn't understand how if Kemora wiped an entire conflict from her timeline, the outcome was still the same and why she wouldn't be allowed to change things. Thomas explained it to her the best that he could. Basically there were four standard versions of history that the DG wanted to preserve. To get their way they would meddle in people's lives – adding and removing children, changing relationships, basically throwing a wrench in the natural progression of things. Essentially Kemora did that for them, and for now they were content to let it stand.

It was brought to her attention that the DG hadn't been planning on meddling with her dimension, not yet anyway. She didn't understand what that meant, however in Thomas's explanations of what she would be doing he made it clear to her. Thomas and K had created a simplified version of a device the DG used, one that would show them a simplistically linear timeline of the dimension they were in. This device showed a world as one of five colors: blue, green, yellow, orange or red.

Red was bad, red meant that the timeline was critically off and needed immediate repair. Orange and yellow meant they were getting closer to a desired timeline. Blue and green were the desired colors, blue worlds being worlds devoted to evil while green were devoted toward good. Her world, as Thomas explained, was green for the longest time. Once she returned with Muirantian powers her world shifted to orange.

It took a while to start showing her powers which is why the DG never made the connection between the two. When they did notice them, it left them with a world they were unsure of how to correct. A good Kim with Muirantian powers was not normal, there were only three known cases in existence. Three cases out of countless dimensions was such a rarity that they weren't sure what to do, or if this was even a legitimate timeline. They didn't know what would push her world in one direction or the other, however Kemora's attack seemed to upgrade it to yellow.

The first time in history that Kemora did something good, accidentally of course, and it hurt her. Now they were willing to see if it fell one way or the other on its own or if they would have to make it happen. From the hints she was given, Kim's willingness to work with them was a sign she wasn't going to go the direction of Kemora, which would lead in a push toward green. However should Deimos win, her world would beyond a shadow of a doubt turn blue.

This color scheme was what her work with the DG would now be surrounded by. Red worlds she would be asked to attend to, and Thomas agreed to guide her until she could figure it out on her own. Orange and yellow weren't as critical, and sometimes those would involve getting in, making sure things were in order, and getting out as the dimension took a path on its own.

In her own world she wasn't allowed to touch anything, at least not within her human life span. In the future, she could work within her home dimension, but now that they were well aware of what she could do they would have the guardian in charge of her dimension keep a close eye on her over the next fifty or so years.

That meant no more cheating to save her friends. She met Revet, the one currently overseeing her dimension. She didn't think he liked her, although she was fairly certain he was keeping a secret for her. He never outright said anything, but he indicated that he knew about her saving Trini. Why he would hold on to this information she didn't know, but Thomas warned her to be very careful from this point forward.

Apparently Revet had kept his eye on her for a long time, ever since Kemora first came to her world to try to possess her. He knew who she was becoming; he knew she was Dulcea's student and a red ranger among other things. He knew that even though she wasn't Muirantian yet, her life was developing very similar to K's. Yet he kept that a secret, allowing the DG to think that K was an anomaly and that she shouldn't be allowed to exist. Thomas didn't explicitly say it, but the implication was he was going to allow the DG to wipe out K, then see to it she didn't make a dot on their radar. Now that she was Muirantian she was impossible to hide. Whether she and K were going to be considered part of a rare but legitimate time line Thomas didn't know, it was something he was currently trying to prove. What he did know was that Revet wasn't exactly pleased and while he didn't think he'd cause trouble like what K experienced in her home world, he still advised her to watch her back.

So now she was officially working on timelines that weren't her own. She was told not to chase Kemora. She wasn't sure how much contact she would have with Kemora. Usually it was Thomas and K who dealt with the red worlds Kemora left behind, although it was possible that she may wind up trying to fix a few now that K was running errands for someone named Primus. For now she was told to come back to her world and get rid of the demon, then afterwards Thomas would take her to her first official job for the DG.

She wasn't completely sure who Primus was other than a being old enough to have helped Zordon in his youth. Thomas promised a more detailed explanation in the future, although who knew when that may be. He had borrowed time and snuck her off after her meeting with the DG to explain a few things to her, things he couldn't say in their presence including the bit about Revet. The DG assumed he was going back with her to her home world so that the two could leave together on their errand.

After she had her discussion with Thomas, she did return to the point the DG was allowing her to go back to. She was in her house a few hours after the attack. Thomas didn't return with her like he was supposed to, instead he said he had one thing to do and that he'd be right behind her. She couldn't help but be curious. He was very shady when she tried to find out what exactly was so important that he had to get to it in that instant.

She frowned. He had given her a lot of information, but she still wasn't sure she could fully give him her trust. He didn't want her to get herself killed, which was probably the reason for the information he volunteered, however just because you didn't want to see someone die didn't mean you were going to be completely trustworthy toward that person.

She laughed a little to herself. She loved Tommy with all her heart, yet she snuck off on him and ran her own missions when the situation called for it. It felt wrong, like she didn't trust him, but he had enough on his plate without having to worry about her every move. She was Muirantian now and Tommy would never fully comprehend that. So she snuck off on him much the same way Thomas just snuck off on her. The difference was Tommy trusted she wasn't being devious. She didn't trust that about Thomas, and she'd simply have to keep her guard up.

The thought of her Tommy brought her back into the reality she was standing in now, the one she was trying to pretend was just a dream. This was the reality where she didn't know if it was possible for him to ever come back to her. The thought that she may have already lost him tore her heart into a million pieces. When they were done here she would do whatever she could to help him.

She wanted him to be vibrant again, to love her again, and to marry her like he planned on doing. She wanted him to argue with her over the rangers, to shoot daggers at Elemi that he thought she didn't notice whenever the Nova red was around, to fret over her and the world she was sucked into what he'd never understand. A world that she didn't completely understand, and the more she thought about it the more she thought about the fact that perhaps she should write it all down, start keeping journals. It would help her piece it all together, keep the fact straight in case something happened and she needed them.

She shook that thought aside as the buzzing that indicated Thomas's arrival grew louder. Now wasn't the time to worry about journals. Now was the time to worry about kicking demon ass and saving two of the people closest to her.

Thomas looked at her as he arrived in her living room. He was two minutes later than he should have been. A small deviation on his part, but one he doubted Revet would ever take notice of. Besides he could simply claim he was off getting what was needed to fight the demon. He glanced at the alternate and noticed briefly the look of worry on her face before it was washed away by one of sheer determination. "Let's rid your world of the demon."

"It's about time," Kim said, grabbing his hand and leading him off so they could get started.

* * *

Jason stood up as the teleportation streak that indicated Kim's Muirantian powers materialized in the center of the Command Chamber. "Where the hell have you been?" he asked her as she appeared. Only she wasn't alone, and his eyes locked on those of their visitor. He knew who he was from their visit in K's dimension and he couldn't say he was happy to see him. "And what is he doing here?"

"He is here to help us with Kemora," Kim quickly explained. Her eyes briefly scanned the room, looking for the look she knew was coming from Carri. After all, they hadn't exactly been pleased last time they saw Thomas. The lump that formed in her throat when she didn't see her friend was a bitter reminder of why Thomas was here in the first place. "How are they?"

"There's no change," Jason said solemnly. Billy was off planet working on something but he didn't know if it would pan out. In the meantime, Kat was caring for the two in the infirmary. He had sat in there with Rocky for the first hour, but he couldn't bear to see the two of them like that. He left, heading back out to try and make battle plans against Kemora and Cratus, to do something useful. He was hoping Kim would return with a magical cure, or that she would have done something to stop Kemora before this ever happened. With Thomas here, he had a feeling that even if she wanted to do something she couldn't.

Kim nodded, expecting as much. She took a deep breath and noticed the look Thomas gave her. She understood, she wasn't here to worry about Tommy and Carri. She was here to banish the demon from her home world, and then she had a job to do. She noticed the pink and green rangers staring at the man standing beside her, the man that was obviously an older copy of their comrade in the next room. "This is Thomas. He is an alternate Tommy who helps worlds who have dealt with Kemora." She wasn't sure she'd consider Thomas helpful, but that was the explanation she was willing to give. They needed to accept it and move on quickly.

Thomas glanced over at the two rangers who he recognized from seeing them on other worlds. He gave them a slight nod. The alternate had been kind in her explanation, although he didn't really want to get into who he was with these rangers. He knew that the alternate didn't fully understand who he was or what he did, and he certainly didn't have any desire to share his world with her teammates.

"So he can get rid of Kemora and fix the others?" Jen asked, giving a questioning glance to the woman who would one day be her mentor. She had heard the name Thomas before as someone her teacher worked with when she was younger. She hadn't realized who he was until now.

"Kemora yes," Thomas said, ignoring the fact that she hadn't directed the question to him as he made eye contact with her. "Your friends, well there's nothing I can do for them."

Zhane had a protest ready, but Kim interrupted him. "Has there been any sign of Kemora?"

"Directly no," Jason said as he shifted into ranger mode. At least now they could get something done. "There has been activity on the moon in Rhianna's old palace. I think Cratus and Kemora are shacked up there."

Kim nodded. She was inclined to agree, and that gave her an idea, but first she needed proof. "Are we sure it's the two of them?" Cratus knew the old palace inside and out, besides she doubted anybody else would be crazy enough to want to use it. Not with Arius's ship looming high above them.

"We saw Cirranadrones," Jason replied. The only reason they would be up there is if Cratus and Kemora put them there.

"That will do," Kim replied. If the Cirranadrones were there, at the very least they were paying attention to the area around the moon. As she started to formulate the plan in her head, the door to the infirmary slipped open and Rocky walked through. He looked like hell, but she declined mentioning it. She doubted she'd look any better if all she had to do was watch and wait.

He walked in slowly and leaned against one of the consoles. He saw all eyes turned toward him. He knew how he looked, knew it coincided with how he felt. It was like the end of the world, or the end of his world at least. He'd heard Kim's voice, it was the only reason he came out there. He was hoping she came back with good news. "Do you have something for them?"

Kim frowned, she had nothing for Rocky, for herself. She couldn't, she wouldn't be allowed to. She'd ultimately loose Tommy and Carri if she tried, and then her own life would be taken, leaving her world open to Kemora and Arius. She wasn't going to doom her planet to that fate, not for her own selfish purposes. Her friends would never want that.

"I'm sorry. I don't know how to help them. Yet," she amended at the last second. She had a thought as to how she might be able to help them without going back into the past, but that would have to be pushed aside until after she's dealt with Kemora and taken care of the DG's business. "I do, however, have an idea on how to get rid of Kemora."

Rocky nodded glumly. It wasn't close to what he was hoping to hear, but he'd take it for now. Thomas noted the look the blue ranger wore and he spoke. "Do not let your friends injuries in battle distract you from the upcoming fight with Kemora. The demon is strong and you need to focus if you are to beat her."

He didn't speak because he necessarily cared about the other rangers on the team. He spoke because the alternate had a job to do after this. If she lost any more of her friends she was likely to back out on him, and he doubted she would end up somewhere pleasant. Either the Dimensional Guardians would get a hold of her and punish her for disobeying, or that would be what pushed her over the edge into evil's arms, creating another Kemora. The worlds didn't need another evil demon jumping dimensions.

Rocky looked like he wanted to protest. Perhaps Tommy was his friend but it was more than that. It was his wife in there lying on one of the medical beds. He had no right to tell him to forget about her and move on. Before he could say anything, Kim spoke.

"He's right, in a way," she said, cursing him under her breath for being so cold. She knew he could care less about them, still he could try to pretend to have a little compassion. "Tommy and Carri are stable, there's nothing more we can do for them now. I am just as devastated as the rest of you," she shot Rocky a look, "but the only way to help them right now is to get the demon that did this."

"Do you have a plan?" Zhane asked. He was more than ready to go after Kemora. He'd lost four teammates in battle before, well before he ever came to Earth. It was hard the first time, and even harder now as he'd known them longer, developed better relationships. He wasn't going to let Kemora get away with it.

"I have an idea," Kim replied with a nod.

"Then let's do it," Jason said, his gaze meeting hers.

She noticed how dark his eyes were as he spoke, noticed the fierce determination behind them. She had no doubt what was going to happen to Kemora and Cratus. They would regret ever coming to Earth and trying to kill their friends.

* * *

Twenty minutes later Kim was standing on the surface of the moon. The plan was to create chaos among their forces. She doubted she was going to phase Kemora, but that wasn't what she was focused on. She wanted to get Cratus and the Cirranadrones confused, make them easy targets for her teammates. She had no doubt Kemora would emerge through the chaos, but she and Thomas would be nearby to stop her.

The plan served two purposes really. It was going to give them the upper hand, and it was going to keep the others away from Kemora. She didn't want them coming after revenge. They were only human, she could kill them easily.

She looked over at the morphed rangers. "Let's do this. Zhane?"

The green ranger nodded and called upon his powers. Seconds later the ground surrounding the palace started to rumble and split. They could hear voices calling out from the inside as Jen used her Planetary powers to hit the building with hurricane force winds. As Cirranadrones came pouring out of the palace, fires cropped up randomly, sending already confused drones into a chaotic spiral.

"Alright, you know what to do," Kim called out to the others. "Keep an eye out for Kemora and Cratus," she added as they took off.

The wind died down and the ground stopped shaking as the battle began. It didn't really matter at that point, they had done what they set out to do. Kim and Thomas stood and watched as the others were easily picking off the confused Cirranadrones. They weren't stepping into the fight yet, they were simply watching and waiting. They had one purpose and one purpose only that was to get Kemora off of this world.

It wasn't long before they saw their adversary. "Very clever," Kemora mused as she dropped down in front of them. She glanced over at Thomas. "Can't say it's a pleasure to see you."

"The feeling is mutual," he replied, his hatred for the demon rising to the surface.

Kim stared at Kemora for a moment. It was obvious that this was a new body. The Kim standing before her now was older than the one she saw the last time. The demon noticed her staring and grinned. "I cashed in for a better model," she explained. She had spent the last few hours doing some dimension hopping of her own. "The last one wore out too quickly after killing your friends, I needed a new one to come back for you."

Her casual, almost excited tone made Kim angry. She tried not to let it show, not to let her know she bothered her. "Glad you got a new body. It wouldn't have been fun taking you out that quickly."

"So cocky," Kemora replied with a smile, "We'll see how you feel when I'm through with you," she said, leaping at Kim as the battle between the two Muirantians began.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the black ranger found himself coming across an old foe who was looking just as confused as those who worked for him. "Cratus," Jason said, snapping his attention toward him.

Cratus turned his head toward Jason. That wasn't who he was looking for, but he would do. "Destroy you now or later, it makes no difference to me."

Jason, in desperate need to get out some built up anger, ran at Cratus full force. He attacked the familiar foe and Cratus wasn't able to keep up. He continued to get pushed back until a rogue group of Cirranadrones appeared, putting themselves between the two enemies and forcing Jason to fight them.

As the black ranger tried to quickly destroy the Cirranadrones, he saw Cratus move off. Just as he thought he was going to get away, a wall of water crushed him and he was immediately pounced on by the blue ranger. Jason was quick to dispose of the rest of the Cirranadrones before moving to join his comrade.

"You looked like you could use a hand," Rocky said as he glanced briefly toward Jason. The Cirranadrone numbers were dwindling. If Cratus had access to more, they weren't here. Rocky could have assisted Zhane and Jen as they destroyed the rest of them, but he'd rather get his hands on Cratus.

Jason let out a little laugh. He was pummeling him quite well on his own. "I didn't need a hand, but if you want to help me kick the crap out of him feel free."

"My pleasure," Rocky replied, funneling his own frustrations for the day into fighting against Cratus. As he attacked, Jason watched, letting him get his own hits in before the black ranger went to join in.

As things were winding down elsewhere, things were literally heating up between Kim and Kemora. They had been fighting one on one using brute force, Muirantian abilities and anything else they could think of. Finally Kim took her Fire Saber and powered it up, manipulating the flames and casting a fiery circle around the two demons that they could fight in.

Kemora let out a little laugh. "Is this supposed to intimidate me?" she asked as she glanced at the fire. She took a few steps toward the edge and stuck her fingers into the flames. "We were born in the fiery pit of Muirantias, or have you forgotten?"

"How could I forget?" she questioned, memories of her forced entry into the pit at Kemora's hands flooding back. She pushed those aside in an effort to remain composed and keep with the plan. "I just assumed you wouldn't want to destroy that pretty little body of yours. Perhaps I was wrong."

"No," Kemora assured her as she pulled her hand out of the fire, glancing briefly at the burnt skin on her fingers. This body wouldn't last forever, but she needed it for now. She couldn't have it destroyed in the middle of her battle. It would be a major setback. "Of course I can just find another body. You on the other hand, well I think you have a preference for the one you were born in," she said, running to attack in an attempt to shove Kim into the flames.

Kim was born both on Earth and on Muirantias in this body, it would hold up a little better than Kemora's borrowed human body. Kemora knew that, but she was also right about her not wanting to take the risk. The thought that she could use that to her advantage sent Kemora into a fury, and the demon rushed Kim with every fighting maneuver she had.

The red ranger's lips curled up into a half smile. Kemora was playing right into her hands. She needed her distracted, she needed her unaware of the outside world. She needed her to attack and think she got the upper hand.

Kim fought furiously for a few minutes, inching closer and closer to the wall of flames. Once she was close enough, she maneuvered so that Kemora's kick would connect with her hand. Her saber flew out of her grasp and through the wall of flames.

"Amateur," Kemora said with a smile as she kicked Kim in the stomach, watching as she clutched her midsection she threw an elbow to her back and put the other woman on all fours. "Let's see how you like the fire."

As Kemora prepared to kick her into the fire, Kim used her Planetary powers to push the fire aside. She only had a second, and in that second she found Thomas waiting to throw her saber back to her. The flames still danced along the blade as she reached up and shoved it into Kemora's chest before the other woman's foot connected with her.

"Bitch," Kemora hissed as she fell to the ground. She struggled to try and stay with this body, to heal herself long enough to get revenge, but the fire saber was too much for the human Kimberly she'd taken over. She glanced up and made eye contact with Kim briefly. The other woman had killed a Kimberly. She didn't think she had it in her. Perhaps she was more demon than she led on.

The last sound to come from the body was a chuckle before Kemora escaped, quickly crossing dimensions in order to regroup and come up with a new plan. Kim fell to her knees beside the dead alternate, removing her sword from her midsection as she lifted her hand and closed the other woman's eyes.

"It was what had to be done," Thomas said, showing no remorse for the loss of the alternate. It wasn't the first he saw in his lifetime, it wouldn't be the last either.

"That doesn't mean it's easy," Kim said as she glanced at the alternate. Kemora's possession all but doomed her anyway. Much like the last Kimberly that died in her arms when she was younger, she imagined it was a release for this one as well. Still, it was hard. This Kimberly had a life. She was older, so chances were she wasn't a ranger. Although maybe she was. Maybe she was happy living with her Tommy. Maybe she lived alone, a former Olympic gymnast. Whatever she once was, now she's gone.

"Let's go," Thomas said, noticing the rest of the battle was complete.

"I want to take her with us, drop her off so her friends can bury her," Kim said. It didn't seem right for her to get left her without any kind of closure for her family.

"That's not our job," Thomas said, shooting her a look. Kim shot him a venomous look back and he sighed. "If her home world was not destroyed by the demon we will leave her body somewhere her friends can find it but that is all. They cannot know what happened." The DG would be furious if they interfered in another world's affairs. However this alternate was dead, them having her body wasn't going to change the affects that had on her world.

"Fine," Kim replied. It was as good as she was going to get. She hated that she couldn't tell the rangers of that world what happened, but she understood. At least she would get the proper burial. She stood as the rest of her team jogged toward her.

"Cratus took off. Coward," Jason said as he spotted the dead Kimberly on the ground. "So Kemora's gone?"

"For now," Kim replied. It was the best she could do.

"Should we be getting ready to fight her again?" Zhane asked, glancing from Kim to the older Tommy.

"Kemora was not weakened when she left here, but that does not mean she will return to your world. Her lifespan is great, she is in no rush for revenge and the demon tends to go off on her own rampages often," Thomas replied. He didn't want the rangers thinking she was going to return soon. He'd never get the alternate to leave with him.

"So then what? Back to normal?" Jen asked, glancing at the woman who would one day be her teacher.

Kim gave her a slight nod. "I imagine we will hear from Arius soon. Kemora on the other hand – you all may never hear from her again. She is going to want revenge against me and the two of us have many years ahead for that battle."

Jason snorted. He doubted he'd be so lucky as to never hear the name Kemora again. Before he could voice those thoughts out loud, Rocky spoke. "We can't go back to normal. Not until we get Carri and Tommy back."

Kim's heart ached at the thought of the two of them lying comatose in the infirmary, however there was nothing she could do about it. "I have to take care of this," she said, gesturing to the alternate Kimberly and leaving out any mention of the DG, "then I will see if I can find answers." That was the best she could do.

"Hurry back," Jason said, watching as she nodded before she took off with Thomas and the dead alternate.

* * *

It was days later before Kim was done with her work for the DG. She found herself sitting in a familiar dimension looking over the lake, contemplating the mission she had just gone on. They sent her on this starter mission because she was familiar with the characters. The setting was a bit different, but it still reminded her quite a bit of her home world.

On this world her friends were adults, a bit younger than she was. They weren't rangers, they had all happily retired freshman year of college when they caused the Zordon wave. There hadn't been a need for another team of rangers since. The alternate Kim and Tommy were married, as were the alternate Rocky and Carri. Both couples had kids, two for Kim and Tommy and one for Rocky and Carri. Jason on that world was madly in love with Kat, a change that surprised Kim but she supposed Kat and Jason weren't necessarily the same on every world.

Everybody on that world was happy, that was until Callisto showed up. Apparently she was an enemy they crossed in their youth, one they thought was trapped in some sort of containment orb. When the goddess arrived the rangers were powerless and without access to a command center, as Billy never rebuilt theirs when it was destroyed the second time.

That made Callisto's two greatest targets easy pickings, especially since they would do anything for their family. She never met the Tommy or Carri of that world. It hurt, a lot, especially given the current condition of her own Tommy and Carri. At their funeral she kidnapped Kat, turning her into the greatest evil warrior the world had ever seen. Kat had an army of Cirranadrones at her disposal, and she was going to conquer Earth.

Rocky and Kim wanted to help, they wanted to avenge their lovers, but they had their own children to protect. It was Jason who had the most to fight for as it was the woman he loved who had been turned evil and sided with Callisto.

Even if all three of them fought they were outnumbered, and when Kim and Thomas arrived they begged them for their help. Thomas had told her they were only to control the rangers of that dimension while getting what they needed. The world was going to blue line, there was nothing they could do about it. What they were there to do was to keep the world from turning red. As a former ranger Kat had access to knowledge she would do anything to get, knowledge she would use on her side that was going to cause the timeline to fly critically off its path. Their mission was to use the remaining former rangers to secure the information before Kat could ever get to it, then get out.

It was why Kim tolerated Jason's insistence that he buddy around with her. She had to manipulate their relationship to get what she needed, and in the meantime he told her everything in an attempt to get her to help them. He said that she reminded him of his own Kim, his sister, and she had to fight every bone in her body not to use her combined powers to step in. It didn't help when she met the kids, the boy and girl that were a perfect blend of her and Tommy and the little boy who looked like Rocky but obviously inherited his attitude from his mother.

As Kim and Thomas were finishing up their work, Kat found them. Jason, who was there helping, saw his fiancé and begged her to come back to him. Kim didn't know what had turned Kat evil against her will, perhaps Callisto's blood in her was too powerful to overcome, but no matter what Jason said she wouldn't listen. She watched the tears running down his eyes as she turned to fire a cheap shot at Kim.

It was a powerful blast, one that would have hurt like hell but as Muirantian it was one Kim would survive. She never got the chance to see though as a distraught Jason took the shot for her. Kat laughed, pleased with herself as Jason died in her arms. Thomas tried to pull her out of that world right then and there, but Kim had to tell the others what happened. Thomas stayed with her, only to make sure she didn't do something stupid. Kim told the other rangers of Jason's death, and the last she saw of them they were trying to figure out how to flee the galaxy with their children.

After the mission, the DG was more than pleased. Jason's death would have happened with or without their involvement, and they accomplished their goal by keeping that particular world on its blue path. She was glad for the job well done and she was glad that the DG was pleased with her work and would allow her to continue to fight on her home world and live out her life there. At the same time, she was crushed. That was why she hadn't gone straight home and had detoured here instead.

"I was hoping it was you," a voice from behind her spoke, pulling her out of her thoughts.

Kim didn't need to turn around to know who was standing behind her. "Have a seat," she said, gesturing to the ground beside her.

K sat down and glanced over at the other woman. She had sensed her Muirantian signatures down by the lake. At least she hoped it was her and not Kemora. She wasn't in the mood to deal with the demon. Offering assistance to a friend she could handle. "I assume you're not here to stare at my version of Angel Grove Lake."

"How do you do it?" Kim asked the questioned that had been dancing around in her head ever since she left the blue world. K was the only person across any dimension that she knew that might have an answer for her.

"Do what?" K asked. That questioned could cover anything given the way their lives parallel.

"How do you go to do a job and watch helplessly as your friends alternates die?" Kim asked as she turned toward the older woman.

K sighed. "The DG officially pulled you in?" she asked, watching as Kim nodded. She wasn't surprised, Thomas said that she was more than ready and that it was only a matter of time before she did something that made them pull her in.

"It's not easy," K said as an answer to her question. "I can't tell you how many times I've had to do it. At the end of a job, sometimes all you can do is take a deep breath and thank the great power that your world is intact." In her case it helped that she would bend the rules, help dying worlds out by doing things like transplant alternate babies. That was something she wasn't going to share with this Kim though. It wasn't that she didn't trust her, it was that she didn't want her following in her footsteps. It was a dangerous path, and while there was no guarantee she wouldn't figure it out on her own, it wasn't going to be her that led her there.

Kim let out a frustrated sound. She wasn't completely sure her world was intact. Unless she could find a solution, she wasn't sure she had anything to go back to. K took the noise as Kim's unwillingness to comply and she continued. "We have to play by their rules. I've seen their wrath, I barely survived it." She promised to play by their rules so she could survive, although she couldn't promise that would always be the case. Still she had been better, if only to live her life on Earth.

"I know," Kim assured her. She wasn't going to openly break the rules no matter how badly she may want to. She couldn't open up her world as a blue world by allowing Arius to win and kill her friends that remained on Earth while she was nowhere to be found. Sneaking around was a different story, but even that wasn't going to be easy and she wouldn't risk it for now. "I just… well they may not be my friends but it still hits close to home."

"Trust me I know," K replied. It was better for her before Teeg's attack, when she was out of the main ranger loop and didn't see the others. Still it was never easy. "Just get in, do your job, and get out. Try to avoid the alternates as much as possible. Watching someone die is never going to be easy, but at the end of the day go home and see your friends. It doesn't fix things, but it helps you forget."

"I don't even know if my friends are going to be there," Kim said softly, watching as K turned toward her, her eyebrows raised as she looked curiously at her. "Kemora came after me, she took out her wrath on Tommy and Carri. It's not good. I don't know if they'll survive this."

K put a hand on her shoulder. Her heart went out to her. It wasn't that long ago that she saw her own husband lying on a medical bed, the worry that she had killed him in an attempt to free him from evil almost killing her. "I don't know your Tommy and Carri but I know mine. They are strong, stubborn rangers. They won't give up to Kemora, they will do their damndist to fight to fix whatever damage the demon did."

Kim chuckled. If Tommy and Carri were able to think, they would probably be trying to fix the damage by sheer will, refusing to let this be the end of their story. However Kim knew will wouldn't cut it. They needed answers, real answers. "Thank you," she said as she stood.

"Anytime," K replied, standing with her. She was the only person who knew how hard it was to be what they were, to do what they did. Even Jason, her Muirantian twin, didn't have the same range of powers and it was nice to be able to talk to someone who shared the same experiences.

"Now I have to get out of here, see what I can do for my friends," Kim said. She and K exchanged goodbyes, then a red light engulfed Kim and she was gone.

* * *

After leaving K's home world, Kim found herself traveling to Phaedos. After everything that had happened since Kemora's initial attack – the conversation with the DG, the battle with Kemora, her assignment – so much time had passed that it felt like it had been ages since she had laid eyes on Tommy.

She didn't want to see him in the infirmary, lying there motionless with no hope of him waking up. She had seen the look on Rocky's face when he emerged; she knew what she would be looking at. Instead she stayed strong, did what she needed to do. Now she had to go back and be the Planetary red, tackle the situation with Tommy, but not before she talked to Dulcea.

She found her mentor standing just below the temple ruins, right outside the path they took to follow her to the top when she was Zordon's pink ranger. "Kimberly," Dulcea said, recognizing her student before she laid eyes on her.

Kim watched as she spun around. "Dulcea," she acknowledged her mentor.

"What brings you here?" she asked, looking the woman over. Her student did not come see her as much as she used to. They spent a lot of time training a few years ago, and they visited frequently when she first developed her Muirantian powers. However now the knowledge she needed was usually obtained from one of her other mentors as she had taught her what she could for now.

"I've come to ask a question. About spirit guides," Kim replied. Dulcea was the only person to ask about spirit guides, despite the fact that it was Ninjor who trained her. Once upon a time Ninjor was a wealth of knowledge. Although his coin making skills were still sharp, the years had not been kind and to get him to recall specific information about spirit animals wouldn't be easy.

Dulcea nodded. She had shared a wealth of knowledge with the red ranger about spirit guides, however there was much more out there for her to learn. None of it essential information, and given Kimberly's life span she knew there was plenty of time to teach her.

Upon her acknowledgement, Kim spoke. "Tommy and Carri were attacked by Kemora. They almost… they should have died. Their spirit guides rose up and saved them. I was hoping you knew why, and if it was possible to use the power of the Ninjetti to heal them since they protected them."

"You of all people should know the answer to that Kaycea," she replied before marching past her and walking up the path toward the ruins.

Kim frowned. She usually only referred to her as Kaycea when she did something that was the opposite of what she was trained to do. It was to remind her of what she learned, as Kaycea was her Phadosian name, and indicated the master warrior who trained her. She sprinted to catch up to the other woman. "I don't understand. How could I know the answer to that?"

Dulcea simply nodded. She expected her to have made the connection on her own, however with everything going on perhaps she would have to make the connection for her. "'To those that hold the great power, anything is possible' is more than wishful thinking. There is truth in it."

Kim thought back to the first time she heard that phrase, when they first met Dulcea and were desperately trying to save Zordon. "Saving them from dying, even that's possible?"

Dulcea stopped and turned toward Kim, meeting her eyes. "Zordon was dead when you returned. You brought your mentor back from the dead," she said as she turned and started walking once more, allowing Kim to think about that for a moment.

The Ninjetti powers had more potential than the rangers knew what to do with them, both as teens and now. Zordon thought his teens could handle the power, it was the reason he sent them to Dulcea over Ninjor. Had they gone to Ninjor, he would have most likely tied their spirit animals to their coins, weakening their Ninjetti powers to the point where they operated much like those used by the Pai Zhuq.

After they brought him back from the dead, he worried that the powers would prove to be too much to handle. In the end, once they lost their coins he severed their connection to the spirit world and to their animal guides. Only when his rangers went on a quest nearly two years later did he decide that they should be allowed to have them back. He didn't expect it to happen a few months later, but over the years the rangers have handled the power bestowed to them well. Although they haven't tapped its full potential, not even Kimberly who trained for years with her, and Dulcea doubted they ever would.

Kim frowned. As a girl she knew in her heart that Zordon was dead when they returned. Then doubt crept into her mind. Sure anything was possible, but raising the dead? It was unheard of, wasn't it? Then she would have said yes, thinking about it now she knew it wasn't. "So simply being Ninjettis protected them from certain death?" she asked as she caught up to Dulcea.

"No," Dulcea said simply. "Their animal spirits protected them. The longer you are Ninjetti, the deeper your connection with your spirit animal is which means the more connected you are to the spirit world."

This was not news to Kim. The others had been Ninjetti's for almost ten years, but for her it was much longer if one counted all the years she spent outside of her time. As a trained master under Dulcea, she had learned a lot about what this connection meant, what she was able to do that she never knew before.

"Yes but what that mean for us? Does it mean the bad guys can't kill us?" She was hard to kill in the first place. She was Muirantian, her body didn't die as easily as a human would.

"No, it doesn't mean that at all," she replied as she shook her head. "I suspect the falcon and the panther stepped up in a response to Kemora's Muirantian energies. You remember what the crane did to protect you from the demon."

She nodded. She remembered her first encounter with Kemora. How she could feel Kemora try to take her body, feel the crane rise up in her defense. She assumed this must be a similar reaction. "If the Ninjetti spirits react against Muirantian energies, can they reverse the damage done by them?"

"Perhaps," Dulcea replied. "With enough time and training, several of the Ninjetti may be able to cure your friends, much like you saved Zordon."

"Why do we need training when to save Zordon we knew nothing about our Ninjetti powers?" Kim asked, frustrated that it wasn't the answer she was hoping for.

"Zordon was a unique circumstance. He was an inter-dimensional being, he worked with sprit animals and the spirit world as I am sure you gathered from your quest to obtain the Turbo powers. It was the spirit animals themselves that saved him, nothing you did. Even with his status, I wasn't sure as novice Ninjetti's you would be able to save him."

"I could get the others," Kim said, not acknowledging the point about Zordon. Dulcea was right, she had nothing more to say about the subject. "How much training would it take?"

"Kaycea you know better than to ask that question," Dulcea chided.

Kim sighed. In her time on Phaedos she had seen the other young warriors come to the planet, warriors looking to train with her or other masters. Anytime they asked a similar question they were reprimanded. Training wasn't about a set amount of time, it was about having patience and practicing until one got it right. "I apologize," she said quickly before Dulcea made her stay and found some sort of punishment for her.

"I will say that you have been one of my best students, and you have had years of training with me and are not yet ready for that particular task." It was her way of answering the question without actually answering it.

They arrived at the top of the ruins as Dulcea finished speaking. If there was no other way, perhaps she could convince the others to train, convince Dulcea to train them. Her mentor stopped in the spot where she once bestowed Ninjetti powers on them and looked out over the forest.

"I am sorry for your predicament," she said as she stood there. She knew how much Tommy and Carri meant to her. They would die well before she would, that was something Kim was coming to grips with. However she was under the impression that the only reason she could come to terms with outliving her friends was that she would have a good fifty Earth years with them. She heard Kim come and up and stand beside her. "The sprit animals saved them. For now there is nothing else they can do."

"I understand," Kim said glumly. "Thank you."

Dulcea nodded, then noticed as the red glow occupied the space beside her before Kim disappeared.

* * *

With nowhere else to go to keep her mind off of the inevitable, Kim returned to the Command Chamber. She was drained from everything she had done in the past few days, and didn't cut her return as close as she could have. It was two hours after the end of their battle with Kemora.

Much to her surprise, she didn't arrive to the glum setting she'd found herself in earlier that afternoon. She arrived to a Command Chamber that was buzzing, where people actually had smiles on their faces. "What's going on?" she asked, her heart fluttering with the promise this scene gave her.

Four sets of eyes snapped toward her. "We're going to get them back," Rocky blurted out, not bothering to hide the excitement in his voice. The solution wasn't perfect, and he wasn't sure what they were going to think about it when they woke up, but they would live. To him, that was all that mattered.

"What?" Kim questioned, her voice a mix of excitement and disbelief.

"Billy, he," Jen started to speak before she was interrupted.

"Why don't you go see him, let him explain it," Jason suggested. It wasn't that Jen couldn't explain it, it was quite the opposite. Jen's explanation was clinical and he thought Kim needed to hear it from a friend.

Jen nodded. What Billy was doing, well in the world she came from it was actually commonplace. However that was the future, that was technology that didn't exist yet. She had the feeling she was witnessing the birth of the procedure, and when Billy told them what he was doing she had eagerly followed along.

The red ranger watched as Jason's head inclined toward the infirmary and she took off. Whatever Zhane was calling after her was lost as the door swung open and she hurried through. The two scientists, who were hovered over a machine, looked up as she entered.

"Hey," she said, a little too casually, as she tried to compose herself as a leader instead of rush in as a worried fiancé. "I hear you may have found something?"

Kat smiled at her. "How much do you know about DNA?"

"DNA?" Kim repeated, watching as Kat nodded. "I know what I learned in biology. I know my DNA isn't human anymore." She may look human, but on the inside she was Muirantian demon. It was what gave her the powers she had.

Kat nodded, the realization hitting her that Kim would be able to understand this explanation better than anyone. Before she could try to give it, Billy spoke up.

"Your DNA was altered. It changed your human makeup into something else entirely. It allows you to heal in ways normal humans can't"

"Oh no," Kim said as a thought hit her. "You can't be thinking about dropping them into the pit. I can't… I love Tommy but I won't let you do that to either of them." To make them demons just like her was unthinkable. She'd rather live the majority of her life without them than to subject them to her fate. She had accepted who she was, what she was destined to do in life. That didn't mean she'd push it on others.

"No, of course not," Billy quickly corrected her. The thought never crossed his mind. Carri and Tommy would never forgive him. "I'm just talking about altering their DNA. Crossing their human DNA with that of an alien species – one quite similar to humans."

It was what he and Kat were working on. They were going to create the right combination of human and alien DNA, making sure his friends wouldn't reject it, before giving them each an injection that would alter their own DNA while allowing them to heal.

"So they will still be human?" she asked, grateful that her friends weren't being robbed of their humanity.

"Mostly," Kat replied with a shrug. "Billy found a species similar to yours, but one whose tissues regenerate differently, one who is capable of complete regeneration, unlike humans."

"So crossing their DNA – it will only affect their ability to heal themselves?" Kim asked, eyebrow raised. When her cells were transforming to Muirantian that was one of the first things she noticed was her ability to completely heal herself better than her human body ever could. It wasn't long after that she was sneezing herself across the timeline.

"It's hard to say with any certainty," Billy replied. Some members of the species he was using were known to have abilities outside of what humans could do. "It's possible that down the road they will find themselves with a new power. It's also possible that nothing will happen."

"And their lifespan?" Kim continued with the questions. She knew how she was changed when her DNA changed. It wasn't the same as what Billy was doing, she understood that, but if this inadvertently gave her a lifetime with Tommy, she'd be more than a little grateful.

"Their average age is thirty years greater than that of an Earth human," Kat replied. "It's entirely possible your friends will get a few extra years." She watched as Kim nodded. It wasn't much, but she would take it.

"I tried to choose a race with characteristics as similar to our own human race. There was one almost exactly like ours, only with a better capability to heal themselves, and my assessment showed that the side effects, if any, would be limited to those not deemed unusual by ranger standards," Billy explained as their machine beeped. He watched as Kat turned back toward it.

"When will they be awake?" Kim asked. She was grateful they were getting a second chance, grateful to the spirit world for saving them. She didn't care if Tommy got a weird power as a result, she could spend the next seventy years happily with him before she embarked on her life alone.

"Once we are finished here, we'll inject them with the DNA. The changes to their cells could take a few hours or a few days, we won't know until we see how rapidly their cells start changing. But they will wake up," he assured her.

"Thank you," Kim said, her voice flowing with gratitude. She turned to exit the infirmary so he could get back to work. Kemora was gone for now and her friends would live. Despite everything else she had been through since Kemora's initial attack, she had a feeling everything would be alright.

* * *

Several galaxies away, a ship was making its way toward Earth. Sitting in the command chair, thinking about his future, was Deimos.

Within the next few days he'd be saying hello to his future wife. He was going to give her a chance. Perhaps if they met, he could convince her to come peacefully with them. The thought caused him to chuckle. He really didn't care if she came peacefully or not, he simply wanted to see the woman he was about to take as his.

Of course peacefully meant he didn't have to worry about his plan. He liked his plan. Arius, despite his failures, had good ideas, he just didn't execute properly. If Kaycea wouldn't return with him, he would be happy to put his plan into motion. The pieces were almost in place. He wouldn't be able to move forward when he arrived on Earth, but he could spend some time trying to entice Kaycea to come back with him. If she wouldn't listen…

Deimos laughed. If she wouldn't listen it was going to work out better for him. He was going to have a lot of fun before forcing her to be his bride and have his child anyway. Either way it didn't matter. It wouldn't be long before the empire was reformed and the entire galaxy was worshiping him as its king.


	17. Revalations

**Disclaimer:** All things Power Rangers belong to Saban. All things K belong to KSuzie, including Thomas, the DG (and anything related to their work), the Novas, and Kemora. Everyone else belongs to me.  
**Authors Note: **This is sorta a two parter but not a cliff hanger. I just had a huge chapter to write out and got halfway into my notes and realized I had to cut it :) Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the chapter. Thank you to all my readers and reviewers for continuing to check out my story.

Dark Inheritance  
"Revalations"

It had been over a week since Kemora's attack, and the white ranger found herself walking through the hallways of Angel Grove High School feeling better than she had in a long time. It was weird to be back there, but she had to see Tommy and today was a teacher workday which meant he was parked in his classroom. School would be starting in a week and he'd have to be here full time, but for now he was only obligated to be here a set amount of hours on set days.

She was having a good visit though. She walked by Ms. Appleby's classroom and was surprised to find her still in there, talking to Mr. Caplan of all people. She stopped in and chatted with both of them for a minute. She was able to catch them up on some of what she had been up to, and they reminisced about the past. They talked about how wonderful it was to have a former alumnus as a teacher, and how it was also a reminder that they had been there a long time. Both were thinking about retiring at the end of the year.

The conversation with the two of them had her doing a lot of reminiscing of her own about her time walking down these hallways years ago. Of course then she was completely normal. Now… well she wasn't a freak show, but she wasn't sure what she was. She wasn't human, that was one of the first things she found out after she regained consciousness, a full five days after the initial attack.

That wasn't entirely true. She was half human, half alien. What that meant, nobody knew for sure. It was entirely within the realm of possibility that she would develop some sort of ability, as members of the species she was now half of occasionally found themselves with small talents that no one else had. She would most likely live an extra twenty or thirty years, which wasn't all that bad since at the very least she'd have Kim with her.

The most important change, the one she knew was going on with her body, was that she had the capability to regenerate any cell in her body at a faster rate than a normal human. The only reason she wasn't lying comatose in the infirmary was that the DNA changes started to regenerate her nervous tissue. Once she regained consciousness, her new DNA continued to heal her from the attack. However it didn't stop there. Old baseball injuries felt fabulous and scars were fading away. Billy said that was expected, that the reason that particular race had made it onto his short list was because their DNA held excellent healing properties. It wasn't magical, a stab wound would be a stab wound and she could still bleed to death, but it would work on closing itself up faster than before.

She didn't go through this experience alone. Kemora's attack, being left brain dead before being turned into a half alien – there was another ranger lying right there with her. It was the silver ranger, the one she felt like she'd been at odds with more often than not lately. Right now that was mostly forgotten. She had so much on her mind that she couldn't share with anyone else. She needed to see if he had the same thoughts or if she was crazy.

Carri shook her head to herself as she looked up and realized she was in front of Tommy's classroom. She walked through the open door. "Dr. Oliver," she said saucily as she grinned at him.

Tommy looked up at her, and the strange woman sitting on his desk looked over at her too. Carri glanced at the other woman. She was obviously much younger than they were, and from her posture she could tell that the woman was into Tommy. Carri huffed as she spoke.

"Hello," the woman greeted as she was obviously sizing Carri up, "are you Tommy's girlfriend?" The tone in her voice was cheery. She heard he was seeing someone, and she assumed this strange woman who just walked in was it. She briefly wondered if she could take her.

Carri crossed her arms over her chest as Tommy simply laughed from behind his desk. "We'd kill each other before that romance got very far."

The other woman laughed, and while Carri silently agreed with Tommy she was a bit irritated when the woman reached over and put a hand on Tommy's arm as though they were close pals and it was the funniest thing ever said. She wanted to put a stop to whatever that was before it got very far, but she couldn't out and out threaten this woman. As far as she knew she hadn't done anything.

"Tommy's right," Carri spoke, forcing a smile. "We're not together, although his fiancé is a good friend of mine. My best friend… more like my sister really. I'd kill for her," she said, the look she was giving the other woman enough to make even Tommy take note.

When the woman regained her composure, she spoke. "That's wonderful that you are so close. I suppose then you are here to talk to Tommy about personal matters. Which is fine, I have a classroom to get back to anyway," she said, turning back to tell Tommy goodbye before exiting the classroom, making sure to keep her distance from the white ranger.

Once she left Carri walked forward and took a seat in the desk closest to Tommy. He sighed as he looked at her. "You didn't have to do that. You're going to scare her off before she even starts her first year," he said, watching as she narrowed her eyes and looked at him. "I wouldn't look twice at another woman you know. I love Kim, besides if I cheated she probably knows a thousand ways to kill me and make my body disappear."

Carri chuckled. She wouldn't doubt that for an instant. However that wasn't why she made her point with the new teacher. "Please Tommy I know how into Kim you are. It's not you I'm worried about," she said. This time it was Tommy's turn to give her a look. "If anybody on this team knows how oblivious you can be to the affections of women whose name isn't Kim, it's me. And that, Dr. Oliver, was you oblivious. You can't let that carry on."

She remembered their senior year well. The months that Tommy had a long distance relationship with Kim, Kat talked about him and her interest and how she wished that one day he would notice her. She invited him places and flirted, never intending to break the duo up but not able to help herself all the same. Rocky, Adam and Billy thought she was just being the friendly Australian. Tommy had no clue she was into him, which left Carri the only one who knew what was going on. When Kim broke up with Tommy, Kat only got worse. Still their fearless leader was somewhat clueless, and up until the day he asked her out he wasn't sure she liked him like that.

"Fine," he said throwing his arms up in the air. She had a point. If Heather was hitting on him, she needed to know that he was in a relationship, and that nothing she could do would change that.

"Glad you agree," Carri said with a smile as she looked around the classroom. This particular room had been her English classroom in high school. It was one of the classes she took with Tommy. They had a lot of fun together in class.

They'd had fun together outside of class. They were friends through college, they would actually hang out some without the others around. You wouldn't know that now. This past year she had hit him with lightning during a battle. On purpose. She would have never done that when they were kids.

She looked over at Tommy and wondered if he was thinking the same thing. "Where did we go wrong?" she asked with a smile.

Tommy chuckled. He honestly didn't know. "I think we just got more stubborn with age. It doesn't help the friendship much." Plus they had both been in the rangers for years, Tommy on Earth almost always as the leader, the one everyone looked up to, with Carri in space not answering to anyone except Kim. His fiancé was like the white ranger's sister, and she was a completely different style leader than he was. She would tolerate more from Carri than he would.

At least she'd tolerate more than he would now. He supposed he had become a little more hardcore about the rangers since Zordon's death. He was in charge now, all the other rangers looked up to him, some were even afraid of him. When they were younger he didn't have that on his shoulders. He tolerated more from Carri back then. Of course she was a new ranger then, she didn't know as much and wouldn't push as much as she could now.

"That sounds about right," Carri said with a smile. Things were more carefree when they were younger. She knew she irritated Tommy and that he picked on her in return, but it was all good natured. Now they would both put their feet down and butt heads. While she knew he was higher up than her on the ranger food chain, it didn't mean she'd bow out gracefully.

They both were contemplating how they'd changed over the years. Finally Carri broke the silence and spoke. "Think we can call a truce, be friends again?" she asked with a sly smile. It was weird to think, but she sort of needed Tommy now. He was the only one who went through the near death experience and the only one who was having the same reaction. At least she thought he was, that was the whole reason she was here in the first place.

"Yes," he said as he looked sternly at her. "But the truce is off the first time you try to hit me with lightning."

"Fine. Just don't piss me off," she glared at him and they both cracked a smile. Chances were they'd be butting heads again by the end of the week, but maybe there was a chance that one or both of them could be rational about it.

Tommy leaned forward in his desk. "So what is it that dragged you out to Angel Grove High? I seriously doubt you came down here to reminisce with me about our youth."

Carri snickered before she turned around, and with a bit of concentration and a quick flick of the wrist closed the door to his room. She turned back toward Tommy and spoke. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened. From the time Kemora attacked until the time we woke up I was having these vivid dreams about Phaedos. You were there, but it was like the real you. I know it sounds crazy but"

"The falcon and the panther together – I suppose in the wild we would make a kick ass team," Tommy cut her off. He had the same experience. He saw her there on Phaedos, they joked they weren't the best two rangers to put alone on a planet together. They weren't completely sure where they were at first, however parts of the jungle were familiar and they saw the animal totems. It was what led Tommy to believe they were on Phaedos and Carri to consider the predatory nature of both of their spirit animals and how they were perfect for a team up.

She locked eyes with him for a moment. That was something she had said to him in her dream. She spoke his response aloud. "They are both headstrong though, they'd both have to compromise to be a team." It was a jab at the two of them, at their situation and how they'd have to work together and forget about their issues to figure this out and get home.

"So then you were there with me," Tommy said simply. It was obvious if she knew the exact conversation he was referencing.

"I remember that conversation shortly after we got there. I remember fighting the jungle inhabitants, following the trail of breadcrumbs that appeared to be left to us by the spirit animals." It was an odd journey. That was her first time in the jungles of Phaedos and to say that it was dangerous was a bit of an understatement.

Tommy let out a grunt. "We were following the trail with no end," he replied with a sigh. They were doing what they needed to do, completing tasks they thought needed to be done. At one point they passed by the Temple of Power. He thought that might be their endpoint, something about full circle with his youth, but then they kept going. He thought maybe he had an idea what the point of this journey was, but then they woke up.

"If we both remember it, what does that mean? Some sort of mind meld? An out of body experience?" At the time they assumed they had gotten hit by Kemora and zapped to Phaedos, cut off from all their powers except those of the Ninjetti. Now they knew that they were lying comatose on a metal slab in the infirmary. It didn't make any sense.

"I've been trying to figure that out myself," Tommy replied. He was never convinced it was a dream, not even when they woke up in the Command Chamber. He hadn't seen that much of Phaedos on his own, and the experience felt real, even after he woke up. He had vivid dreams before, even ones ranger related, especially with his work with Anton and his time in Reefside with the Dino Thunder team. No matter how foreshadowing they were or how much they reflected in the past, he always knew they were dreams.

"I know a couple of people we can ask," Carri pointed out. She was thinking specifically about Dulcea, although Kim was a master trained by her and might know, and Ninjor was Dulcea's teacher. Given what she'd seen and heard about Ninjor's senility though, he would be her last option.

"Kim?" Tommy replied, watching as she shook her head no. He knew the next logical answer and he spoke. "Dulcea is the best person to talk to." His fiancé was the student, and although she was considered a master warrior of Phaedos he doubted she knew everything her teacher did.

"So then we'll go to her?" Carri's question was more of a statement as she raised her eyebrow and almost dared him to disagree.

"We should talk to Kim, let her know we have questions. Then she can take us to Phaedos. I don't know how long we'll have to be there and neither one of us can afford to miss any more time on Earth," he said. He had missed enough days at work and while Carri owned her own company, she usually had enough daily work between her show and her movie to keep her busy and she was behind as well. Taking Kim assured they could cut the time window close.

"So we'll go tonight?" Carri questioned, hopeful. She wanted answers.

"If we have time, if Kim can take us," Tommy replied. He wanted answers just as badly as she did, however it wasn't a rush."

"Fine," Carri said, trying to come off as nonchalant but the look on her face suggesting otherwise.

Tommy chuckled. "Glad you agree, although you don't have a choice," the tone in his voice was serious although the smile on his face indicated he was teasing. "Now if you'll excuse me I have a lot of work to catch up on from my vacation." That was what Mr. Caplan thought he was doing, vacationing.

Carri let out a grunt. "Yeah, me too." An email was sent from her account to her office that she and Rocky were going to Paris for the remainder of their honeymoon and would return soon. It made her look reckless and irresponsible. She fessed up to her brother, and while he understood and promised to try to get their father to ease up, she still had to work double time to make up for being gone and get back in everyone's good graces.

"See you later?" Tommy asked as she stood.

"But of course," she replied, saying goodbye before heading to the door. She smiled to herself. Perhaps it was the walls of Angel Grove High School, but for a minute they were talking to each other like they did when they were eighteen. She honestly didn't know if it would last past this crisis they shared, but for now it was nice.

* * *

Kim sat in the Mystic Realm, doing the work that Mystic Mother assigned to her. She was enjoying her training in sorcery, Mystic Mother was a fantastic teacher and she was learning a lot. Sorcery wasn't easy though, it took a lot of work and her former enemy would never simply tell her the answer. On days like today she wanted to bang her head against the wall. Repeatedly.

She thought she was going to work on something complex but she had spent more time running around in the Mystic Realm and even popping in once in Briarwood collecting things. Now she was supposed to put everything together to create something, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out how the pieces worked.

She tried a few different techniques Mystic Mother showed her before and she'd gotten all sorts of results, ranging from starting a fire to plopping a tree in the middle of the room. Not the desired result though and as the latest attempt fizzled before her she sighed and went back to the drawing board.

She'd get it eventually, she always did, and when she figured it out she'd realize that Mystic Mother had opened her up to an entirely new technique, one that her teacher could use to give her a new range of magical abilities. In the meantime though she'd keep working and failing until she figured it out and got it right.

The one nice thing about spending all this time on this task for her teacher was that she didn't have time to think about everything that happened lately. Tommy and Carri were alive – she supposed that was the most important thing. It took a few days, but they both healed and were continuing to feel better to this day. It seemed like everything had gone as well as could be expected with their recovery. Billy didn't expect to see anything out of the ordinary in the future with either of them after his experiment to save their lives.

As heartbreaking as that had been, that was probably the least stressful of the events she had been through. Her mission for the DG had been hard. Not the task itself, which was actually fairly simple, it was having to go into a world and not be able to do anything as it was lost to the forces of good. She understood why, she knew she couldn't interfere.

To try to make sense of it all – the DG, her missions, the blue worlds – to try and figure out if maybe there was a place she could help, she spent the time waiting for Tommy to recover working on a journal. She wrote down everything she knew about the DG and about her first mission, including everything about Kemora from the first time she laid eyes on her. She read through everything five or six times trying to see where the pieces fit, before storing the information in her mind and the writings on a flash drive, one securely hidden from even Tommy. She didn't want to bring him in on this, didn't want him to worry. Especially now, with everything he'd been through and everything ranger related they still had to deal with.

She sighed as she went back to the problem before her. Before she could get started on her billionth try, a familiar clicking of heeled boots echoed in the distance. She looked up in time to see Rhianna enter the room.

"Mummy's not here is she?" she asked, looking guilty as hell over something.

"No, I haven't seen her in a while. She'll be back soon I imagine. She wants to see if I can figure this out," Kim said with a sigh as she gestured to the work in front of her.

Rhianna glanced briefly at Kim's project before cracking a small smile. That was something she had done before, and she couldn't help but wonder if the Muirantian would take longer to figure it out than she did. "Well if you see her, tell her that I need to speak with her."

The guilty look did not leave her face and Kim turned toward her, crossing her arms over her chest. "Rhianna, what is going on?"

The other woman's chin jutted up, giving Kim her best defiant look. "I'm packing my things, moving to the surface," she said, looking at Kim as if daring her to say otherwise.

"You're what?" Kim asked, raising an eyebrow. Mystic Mother only tolerated Rhianna's trips to the surface because she felt guilty over what happened to her and was grateful to Skull for looking past who she was and trying to save her. However Rhianna was her mother's daughter and with that came her mother's talent as a witch. She wanted her daughter to mature a bit before allowing her any freedom.

Rhianna rolled her eyes. "Moving to the surface," she repeated with a sigh. "You know, to live with my husband."

It took every ounce of willpower Kim had not to seek out her mother just to say I told you so. Rhianna was defiant and she was in love with Skull - that was a bad combination. Mystic Mother thought it would eventually wear itself out, that she'd realize he was a mere Earthling, unable to keep up with her. When they got engaged her mother said that wasn't going to happen, yet she still let her wear the ring. It wasn't worth the fight and she didn't think her daughter would actually go through with it. Yet here she was, claiming to be married.

"What did you do?" she asked, her eyes staring at Rhianna accusingly.

"Skull and I went to Vegas. Elvis married us," she said, watching as the other woman's jaw moved back and forth. "I have adorable pictures, you can see them if you'd like," she added.

"You had better march up there and get that thing annulled before your mother finds out. She's likely to kill the both of you," Kim lectured her. She was lucky her mother no longer believed in locking people up in her dungeons or throwing them in her dark dimensions. That was such a stupid thing to do. Even if she is so young she should have known better.

Rhianna crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Kim. "That is so not going to happen. I am in love with Skull and there is nothing she can do that will change that."

"Rhianna your mother," Kim stopped short as the familiar gravelly voice entered the room.

"What is going on in here?" Mystic Mother said, surprised to see her daughter in there with Kim. Last she knew she was spending time with her father.

As her daughter turned toward her and grinned, her arms crossed defiantly still from her conversation with Kim, the red ranger took a few steps back and braced for the fallout. Kim looked from one former evil doer to the other as Rhianna spoke.

"The red ranger and I were having a disagreement," Rhianna said with a smile on her face. "She doesn't like the fact that I am going to the surface world to live with my husband but I think that"

"You're what?" Mystic Mother bellowed, not giving her daughter a chance to finish that sentence. She wasn't allowing her daughter to be engaged, although she refused to remove the ring and she figured it was simpler to let her keep the ring as long as she didn't do something stupid. She never thought she'd run out and marry the boy.

"Moving in with my husband. Skully and I got married in Vegas," she said proudly. She knew her mother was going to be pissed but she didn't care. She once ran an army of evildoers, she could handle her mother.

"I will not allow this marriage to stand," she said as she glared at her daughter. "You will go have this annulled this instant."

"Sorry mummy not going to happen," she said, her defiance in full force. "I love Skull and you said you would let me be with him. Have you changed your mind about how good he is for me?"

She shot her student a look and the red ranger stepped even further backwards from the conversation. She said Skull was good for her daughter because he tried to save her, because he came to her when she was bent on destroying the world. Plus she had just gotten her back after years of thinking she was dead, she wasn't going to lose her that quickly over a rift about who she could date.

However Skull was far from perfect for her daughter. He was human for one. Being human wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but he only had another fifty years on this world, she wanted to save her daughter from watching him rapidly age and die. Two he was Skull. The teenager that she watched through her telescope when she was Rita, one half of the dynamic duo that had her convinced if she could just defeated those rangers, the rest of the planet would be easy as Earthlings weren't too bright.

The whole situation was giving her a headache and she put her hands to her temple and looked at her daughter. "You, go to your room. I will deal with this later." When she had a chance to calm down, before she reached in for her inner Rita.

"Fine. I'll be in my room," Rhianna said, a little too coolly and Kim couldn't help but wonder just how long she planned on staying there before making her escape.

Those thoughts fell aside as Mystic Mother turned her attention toward her. "You, go home for now. I will expect you at the same time tomorrow." She was in no mood to finish with her student today.

Kim nodded. It was fine with her, she had to get back to work anyway. She used her lunch break to sneak into the Mystic Realm, and she was planning on cutting time closely and returning just before she was due back to work. She wasted no time teleporting herself out in a flash of red light.

* * *

Rocky walked into his Stone Canyon school on a very hot weekday afternoon. He had some regular tasks to take care of, plus he had to make sure they were ready for the influx of students they would get when the school year started. At the start of the year everybody came back from summer vacation, and then the kids resumed their classes and inevitably brought one or two friends each to try it out. Some stayed for the long haul, and some quit after their trial period ended.

He really didn't want to be there. Not because he didn't want to work, he loved his schools, but because he'd rather be spending time with Carri. He was worried about her, he thought she still needed to rest. She thought he was overreacting but she didn't know what it was like for him, sitting there numbly by her medical bed for hours thinking she'd never wake up. Even when he knew there was a solution, it still took days for her to regain consciousness.

Billy told them to take it easy, that their bodies were still adjusting to the new DNA and still in the process of healing themselves, plus making who knew what other changes. However she didn't sit still long and after three days of being at home, she woke up this morning and said she was going into the office. He shouldn't be surprised. The first day he stayed with her all day but the second he snuck out to check on his main school for a few hours. When he returned, she was busy on her laptop with work. She said she was too far behind, that she needed to catch up and she felt fine.

The next morning he got her to stay in bed with him all morning and he loathed having to leave her, but he had a meeting scheduled with an equipment company about switching out his schools equipment. It was old and worn and they needed new things, at least in Stone Canyon and Angel Grove. The deal would not only get him equipment for less but it would involve him promoting the company in his school while they advertised for him on their website. It was huge and they were adamant about not rescheduling.

By the time he got back from his meeting Carri was gone, returning an hour later after having lunch with Kim and Jason. That's when she learned that the silver ranger had ignored Billy's suggestion to take another week to rest and had gone back to work that morning. That was the final push she needed, and it made her decision to get up the next morning and go back herself that much easier.

Reluctantly he let her go without argument, knowing that he still had to attend to his own work. He hadn't been in the office while Carri was healing, Billy had made up some cover story about the two of them going to Paris and he couldn't be spotted around Angel Grove. It was just as well, he doubted he could have focused. It should be easy to focus today, although he still worried about her. If she said she was alright he wouldn't doubt it. Still she had no idea what the DNA was doing to her. In the end though he listened to her and let her go.

He's always loved her and always worried about her, especially given the fact that she is devoted to the rangers and has no qualms about giving her life in defense of the planet. Not that he didn't make the same commitments, but she tends to stick her neck out more and it drives him crazy. He can't say that to her, she is a good ranger and unless she does something incredibly stupid he has no ground to stand on. Still it's hard for him. She's his wife, he loves her more than anything.

He smiled to himself as he thought about that word. Wife. He hadn't had much chance to use it. They went on their honeymoon and had a fantastic time, but they didn't do any of the newlywed stuff the resort had to offer and he didn't get too much of an opportunity to call her his wife out loud. Then there was the whirlwind surrounding Kemora's attack, and they were just now getting back to normal where he could really think about it.

Before he could ponder any further, a door opened up and his Stone Canyon secretary walked through. "Rocky!" she exclaimed, walking over to give him a hug. "How are you?"

"Good," he replied, gently pushing her off of him. He wasn't going to tolerate this, now more than ever. Before Carri was just his girlfriend, Jessica thought they had hope. "I am officially back from my honeymoon," he paused, holding up his left hand so she could see his ring, "and now I am trying to make up for lost time."

"Well we are so glad to see you in the office," Jessica said, omitting any kind of congratulations. She wasn't happy for him, she still loved him. Married didn't mean anything, he wouldn't be the first married man whose head she turned.

"It has been a while," Rocky said, giving her a half smile. He intentionally avoided going in there as much as possible. He claimed it was because he was busy running his Angel Grove school and keeping up with the three satellite schools, but really it was because he wanted to avoid Jessica. He'd been to Turtle Cove more in the last six months than he had been to Stone Canyon.

It helped that the head instructor at Stone Canyon was someone he'd known for years, someone he completely trusted. He stayed in close contact with him and essentially left him running most of the day to day issues. It was nice, it kept him from having any confrontations with Jessica over her still wanting him or hinting that her infant son might be his.

Carri hated her working for him, hated the idea that their paths crossed. She knew Jessica, knew the lengths she would go to in order to get his attention. She hated that he gave her the job. She didn't want him to be nice to her, but it was completely his fault that she was broke. He was the one that kissed Carri while he was dating Jessica. When she caught the two of them and pushed Carri into a fight she was left with a broken nose, thousands of dollars in medical debt, and without her modeling job. He felt guilty and he had to help her out. The only reason the white ranger didn't push the issue anymore was because he sent her to Stone Canyon and only visited that school when necessary.

"I'm sure you've been busy," she said walking over to link her arm in his and pulling him away from his thoughts, "but now that things are back to normal you should come by more. I should bring Robby up here. He's getting so big, you'd love to see him. He reminds me of a certain someone," she finished with a wink.

"Maybe," Rocky said, removing her arm from his. "This trip though I have a lot to get done so we'll chat later," he said, turning and making a beeline for his office, going inside and shutting the door. He couldn't stand out there and let her flirt, or have her insinuate that the child could be his. For now he'd hide in his office, get his work done, have an instructor meeting and get out of there.

* * *

Deimos stood on his command ship, the one he sent out months ago carrying Aruis and two of his best generals. Novak was killed in battle, and Arius… well Arius was now pet food. That left Shax, who had been holding things down on this end fairly well until he could get there.

As he sat down in his command chair, Shax approached. "My lord," he bowed to the supreme commander of the army, "my messenger shouldn't be gone much longer, and then we will have the information you seek to carry out your plan."

"Perfect," he said with a smile as he motioned for his now first in command to stand up. "Were you able to encourage any members of the army to come join us?"

"Two were close by and anxious to fight the Planetary Rangers," he replied. They had all pretended to ignore Arius's summons. No one was anxious to receive the same fate that plagued most of their friends. To be destroyed, turned into a skyscraper sized monster, then to be destroyed again. However when Deimos called, that was different. No one dared to turned down their supreme commander and would happily come assist him. "The Boomer brothers," he added.

Deimos nodded. That was perfect. The Boomer brothers were quite destructive, one able to make sonic booms with his hands capable of leveling buildings, one able to create explosions out of nothing but his own DNA. If Kaycea wouldn't come with him, he would use them to destroy the town until she agreed to return with him. If she wouldn't, he would simply let the Boomer brothers do their work while he moved on to plan B.

"Ready the troops," he said as he turned toward Shax. "I want to go say hello to my new bride this afternoon."

"Yes sir," Shax said, taking off so that he could make sure everything was perfect for his leader's first trip to the surface.

* * *

Jen sat at home, enjoying an extra-long lunch break before she had to get back to work again. She was hoping Wes could make it home, but he had gotten caught up with something involving the Silver Guardians and wouldn't be able to be there.

This left her, sitting alone with a sandwich from her favorite deli, contemplating everything that had gone on lately. As she often did, she was trying to remember her history, trying to see if what she knew to be true was unfolding the way it should. Watching Billy try his procedure on the rangers had sparked her current line of thought.

She had been thinking about it since the day it happened. It was commonplace in her time. She came from an Earth that was acceptant of alien cultures, and had no problem mixing human medical technology with that of other worlds. The DNA procedure was one that was used in cases like Tommy and Carri's, where they were injured and needed that sort of treatment to make a full recovery. It altered the genetically perfect DNA one was born with, but usually created something better.

It was a technology that was credited to NASADA scientists, and their belief was someone from another world had shown them that technology. Now though she had a strong feeling that either Billy or Kat shared the technology with NASADA. How she wasn't sure yet, but she was keeping an eye on things. What she did know was that in about fifteen years the technology would go from practically nonexistent to commonplace within the walls of Newtech City before eventually branching out throughout the rest of the world.

She made a face as she took a swig out of the open bottle of water on the table while she thought it over. As she put the bottle down, a familiar red light glowed softly in front of her. "Kim?" Jen questioned, watching as the form emerged. When the woman in front of her materialized, she noticed the features, noticed that the face in front of her was older, that the look she wore was harder than the woman who was her red ranger. This was her mentor, and in response she sat up a little straighter and smiled.

"Jen," she greeted, happy to see the recognition across her face. She knew exactly who she was, and that she wasn't from this time. "How are you?" she asked as she took a seat across from her.

"I'm fine," she replied, wondering exactly what this was about. In the years she had come back, she hadn't heard a word from her teacher. "Did you come by to say hello?" she asked, trying to figure out how to see what she was doing there without coming across as rude.

"Yes," Kim said with a smile. "I came by to say hello, and to check up on things." She had wanted to check on Jen for a long time, but it was risky. First there was risk to herself, and if Revet caught her here he would cry foul. They did not see eye to eye and he was itching for a reason to thrust her in front of the DG for punishment. Technically she was allowed to work in this dimension, but only in the parts of the timeline that didn't involve her human lifespan. She could argue that Jen was a product of the timeline that she worked in, and by only interacting with Jen she was simply following through with what she was allowed to do.

That would probably pass, but that brought up another problem with her returning. If Revet saw her here, he would see her with Jen. He was currently oblivious to Kate Collins - the only part of the Planetary team he was interested in was her. She couldn't afford to change that, to have him suspicious of Jen and change the timeline by seeing to it she was reported to Time Force. That was why she created what was essentially a bubble, transporting it back with her and using it to mask her existence in this world. It wouldn't last forever though, and she had to do what she needed to do and get out.

It was disappointing she couldn't stay. She'd love one last look at her friends, at Tommy. They died a very long time ago and she missed them dearly. Especially her husband. He was the first man she ever loved. The only man she ever really loved, every really connected with completely on every level, although she had allowed Elemi to push her into marriage after everyone else was out of the picture. She didn't know why, she supposed when she first met him she had a thing for the red ranger. That was forgotten when she reunited with Tommy, but he never gave up on her.

After Tommy passed away, Elemi was one hundred and thirty years old, nearly halfway through his expected lifespan. In the sixty years since they first met he had done the responsible thing, married and produced a male heir, all the while still infatuated with the female red ranger that changed his mind about a lot of things. Which was why when they worked a mission together, nearly two years after Tommy's death, he made his affections clear. Unlike when they first met on her original mission to destroy Callisto and Rhianna, there was no white ranger there to smack her and she returned his affections.

"I'm doing fine," Jen assured her, pulling her away from the thoughts of the only two men ever really in her life.

"You're ok with everything going on here?" Kim asked, focusing back on the task at hand. Get in and get out, no time for thinking about the other rangers.

"Yes," Jen said, wondering what specifically she was referring too. It was crazy here, but then again she should remember that well. There was one thing that she didn't understand, one thing that had been bothering her for months, and this may be her only chance to get her question answered. "Did you set me up to come back to this timeline the second time, to stay and marry Wes?"

"Yes," Kim replied, a one word answer to counter Jen's own. It was her job to manipulate timelines, and she knew she had to get Jen to stay in 2002. Without Jen staying there would be an equaline wave that would destroy the future. The Planetary team wouldn't be at full strength, which meant no beating Arius and the emergence of another Kemora. Plus without Jen in the past there would be no Alex in the future, and no Alex meant trouble as the consequences to Time Force, specifically where Ransik was concerned, spiraled so far south that just thinking about it gave her a headache. Revet wouldn't care about any of that should he catch Jen here, he'd simply use that to accuse her of manipulating her own timeline, which was why it was her job to make sure the pink ranger was able to sneak back in and stay.

She watched as Jen nodded at her, not surprised at all by her response. She shouldn't be, she knew who she was and what she did. There were a lot of manipulations involved to make sure everything happened correctly from the year 2002 onward. However that wasn't what she was here to talk about. "By ok, I mean you understand you rejoining a team happened for a reason, and that you won't get found out. I am sure you're stressed but I want to make sure you stay calm and off of Time Force's radar," she said, going back to her original question.

"Wes is more worried about it than I am," she admitted. She had faith in the great power, faith in her mentor that she was doing the right thing. She had to, she had no other choice. Wes though… Wes was scared of losing her. He didn't know the time guardian like she did, he didn't have the same belief that everything would be fine. "I think he's more worried about what might happen after the battle, what Tommy's going to do."

Kim let out a little chuckle. She clearly remembered what Tommy wanted to do. They had a heated argument when the battle was over. She said that Jen deserved to stay, that she had fought with them and saved the world with them – saved herself and Tommy. While he agreed, she was still in violation of Time Force's laws and was doing who knew what with the timeline by being there. He didn't want to let her stay, he thought it was his responsibility as leader of the reds to do the right thing. When she couldn't use his gratitude to change his mind, she used logic. Should he report her to Time Force, they could very well jump back to 2002 and pluck her out of the timeline right when she broke the law, well before she got to be Planetary Ranger. This meant no full team, and no way to defeat Arius. She would have become another Kemora, and the rest of the team would probably be dead by now. In the end her logic won out, and he agreed to let her stay.

"Don't worry about Tommy," she assured her. "I think your red ranger will make sure he doesn't do anything rash." There was a twinkle in her eye as she spoke, and Jen smiled at her. "I am trying to keep an eye on things from the future as much as I can, I will make sure nothing happens to the timeline. In the meantime, make sure your husband is careful when he talks to Tripp. I know he's extra worried now and wants to make sure Time Force isn't clued in, but he can't keep dropping all these hints."

"So then everything will be alright?" Jen asked, a smile on her face as she asked a question she already knew the answer to.

"Everything will," Kim replied as a chirping sound came from Jen's wrist. The noise was nostalgic and even if she couldn't see the others it was a good reminder of the era, of where she was in her life then.

Jen locked eyes with Kim, who pointed to the communicator, indicating she should answer it. "Go ahead," the pink ranger said as she brought the device to her mouth.

"We've got serious trouble. You need to morph and get to the park," Billy's voice came through the other end. Kim couldn't help the smile that voice gave her. It had almost been a thousand years since she heard it, at least from her Billy.

"On it," Jen replied, jumping up and turning toward Kim. "Thank you for coming. Now I have some business to attend to. Planetary rangers, power up!"

In a flash of pink light Jen was gone. As the uniform overtook her and she left, Kim flipped her own wrist and glanced down at the Planetary morpher as it appeared, still as much a part of her now as it was then. She still used her morpher on occasion, as well as other morphers if the situation called for it, but there had never been another Planetary team. The powers chose them, and when they died she never bothered to see if they would chose again. She simply locked them back up and hid them in a dimensional pocket only she could access.

She could feel the bubble around her waver, and she knew it was time to leave. She wished she could stay, wished she could observe, but Revet would never allow it. She knew that this conflict was pivotal in shaping their future. She was worried about the DG allowing an equaline wave. Things were never set in stone, there was already a mini wave when Kemora appeared. She clung on to her old memories as long as she could, but eventually the wave caught up to her. Now she couldn't tell you what originally happened.

The DG had allowed that change to stand for reasons she didn't understand. She wondered if the DG would allow a wave to stand that would turn this conflict. This was the difference for her world being blue or green, between her living the way she is now or having been turned into Kemora 2.0, hunted and probably killed at the hands of K or others. She did a lot of work for the DG, but they could turn on her on a dime, letting the world shift and moving to contain her before she could do anything about it.

She'd like to think they wouldn't erase all the work she did for them, but there were certain corrupt factions in the DG, factions in the future that she would have the ability to do more against them, do more of what she knew was right and sneak around them, but now, in this timeline, she was powerless. It would be easy to wipe out her future by destroying her past, especially with Revet there. He'd have no problem letting a massive wave roll across her dimension just to get rid of her. He wasn't a fan of her or her Muirantian alternates.

For now though she had to believe that she was worrying for nothing, that the current conflict would go down just the way she remembered it. She had no choice. There wasn't much she could do about it, they would find a way to capture her the minute she stepped foot in this timeline. It was possible there were ways to work around it, to fix things, but that would be a hell of a position to be in and she wasn't sure she'd make it out alive or that her world would make it in one piece.

She sighed as the bubble around her shimmered. She had to leave now and believe that her younger self would take care of any problems, would keep the timeline the way it should be. Otherwise they were all in trouble. With a shake of her head she stood, and reaching deep within herself she connected to her powers, then allowed herself to teleport back to her time.

* * *

Jen was the last to arrive on the scene, and she was quick to realize the conclusion the others had come to as well. This wasn't an ordinary attack. There was the usual group of Shax and Keresecks, plus there were two other creatures, and there was a creature there that gave her a bad feeling.

He was tall, built, with hard crimson skin and black armor covering it. He had long claws on his hands and feet, black wings on his back and two curled horns sticking off the top of his head. It was quite obvious from the others positions he was the leader, and it was a safe assumption that he was the one after Kim.

"I am glad you all came out to greet me," Deimos called out as he looked over the rangers. "I would hate for you to miss this."

Kim stood at the front of the group, Tommy at her side as the others fell in behind them. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared down at him. He was freaky looking, she'd give him that much, but whether or not that meant they should be scared she didn't know. "Who are you?"

"Kaycea it disappoints me that you don't already know," he said with a small smile. "I'm Deimos, you're future husband and the next ruler of the dark empire."

Tommy stiffened beside her as he realized who they were dealing with. Kim remained relaxed as she replied. "Thanks for your offer but I already have a future husband, I don't need another one."

"This isn't a request," he said as he allowed his wings to flap upwards, making his appearance more menacing. The rangers didn't flinch and he continued. "I asked nicely, I sent Arius, and you ignored him. Now I thought I would ask you myself."

"What makes you think the result will be any different?" Kim asked, trying to calculate exactly what he had in mind. If he had more power than Arius he could mean trouble, and she was going to have to come up with a strategy quickly.

In the blink of an eye Deimos was on top of her, grabbing her arms and pulling her into him, his wings wrapping around them and ensuring that the other rangers kept their distance. They shifted into ready stance, but were waiting to make their move.

"You will come back and be my bride. You can either do it willingly, and we will rule together, or I will force you to come and you will be nothing more than my wife slave, chained up until I want you," he threatened, his voice dark and menacing.

The thought made Kim cringe a little, however that didn't mean she would change her mind. There was nothing he could do that would convince her to embrace her dark inheritance. "How about I simply destroy you?" she asked, using her own abilities to teleport herself out of his grasp and to the back of the group.

Furious, Deimos opened up his wings, allowing electricity to flow through them. With one large flap, he shot bolts of energy out powerful enough to throw all the rangers backwards. "Fine. If you want to go by force so be it. I will leave you with the Boomer brothers. If they change your mind, Shax will be happy to escort you to my ship. If not, well I have a surprise for you," he said with a laugh, taking off before any of the rangers could get up and chase after him.

They pulled themselves to their feet and looked over at the group that was left waiting for them. "Boomer brothers?" Carri called out, trying to shake off the creepy factor and get back down to business, "what kind of name is that?"

"You'll find out," one of them assured her as he reached his hands back. "They call me Pitch," he said as he let sound waves flow freely, the low vibrations hurting their ears and the higher ones toppling them over. "Because mine's always perfect," he finished as a few trees fell over and the rangers rolled out of their way.

"I'm his brother Bang," the other one said, throwing a piece of his hair on the ground in front of the rangers, causing a small bomb to go off, "due to my explosive personality."

The white ranger groaned and shot the snickering black ranger a look, and he simply shook his head. It was like something Rita would come up with, only with a little more bite. Before she could yell a response, Kim rallied the troops. "Carri, you take Jen and get rid of the Keresecks," she said, wanting to keep her friend away from the monsters as long as possible. Her making fun of them wouldn't help their cause. "Jason, see if you can't convince Shax to not stick around. The rest of us will take a crack at the Boomer brothers."

With that everyone called for their weapons, splitting off for their assigned battles. Kim saw the other two fights start, but as they approached the two brothers they found things not going the way they liked. Both brothers used their talents to knock the rangers off of their feet.

Kim stood up. If they wouldn't let them close this wasn't going to go well. "Zhane try to get them off balance, Tommy see if you can't give them a little something to blind them for a moment."

"Right," Zhane said as he moved into position, rumbling the ground beneath the two brothers. As they stumbled Tommy wasted no time manipulating the sun so that they couldn't see, then Rocky went after Pitch while Kim led the attack on Bang. Once the first attacks started, Tommy joined Rocky while Zhane joined Kim and the four of them tried to work quickly to destroy them before they could regain their senses.

All three fights were going in earnest. Carri and Jen's fight was the quickest, as there were only a dozen or so Keresecks and they were becoming experts on destroying them. As the last one fell, the two headed toward the main battle, pausing briefly to watch Jason fight with Shax.

Carri glanced over at Jen. "Shall we?" she asked, wanting to help him make his problem go away quickly so they could get back to the annoying brothers.

"I think so," Jen replied as the two of them turned and ran toward Shax and Jason. Neither paid attention as they approached, and both were surprised when the pink and white rangers landed a simultaneous kick on Shax from behind.

He tumbled forward and the girls moved in beside Jason. "Thought you could use a little girl power," Carri said as they all turned toward Shax.

"Use? Nah," Jason said, not wanting to admit to her that he appreciated the help. "If you want to help me beat the crap out of him though go for it."

With that the three of them went after Shax, attacking him with a fury and ignoring the explosive battle going on near them. It didn't take long for Shax to decide he'd leave them to the Boomer brothers. The other rangers could hardly stand, they wouldn't be far behind. Besides he was doing well against the black ranger, but three on one weren't odds that favored him.

Before he had a chance to take off, they each hit him with a special attack. He stood and growled, glancing at them momentarily before uttering "until next time" and teleporting away. Of course chances were the Boomer brothers would kill them and Kaycea would give up before there was a next time, but still.

Satisfied with a job well done, the three rangers moved on to a fight where their friends weren't fairing so well. Their leader was the closest one to them, and Carri walked over and helped her off of the ground. "He's got a head full of little bombs just waiting to destroy us when we get close," Kim grumbled, referencing the monster she was facing.

"Think we can use that to our advantage?" Carri asked, raising an eyebrow and turning toward Kim.

"I thought about it," Kim replied. She wanted to light him on fire and see what happened, but she couldn't get close enough. "Maybe if you zap him from back here that will start the fire, then I can push him along."

"No problem," Carri said. She watched the fight for a moment, waiting until Bang threw Zhane out of the way. Then she sent a lightning bolt tearing through the sky, hitting him directly in the head. A few flames started dancing on his scalp as his hair ignited, but before he could do anything about it Kim moved in and pushed the fire so that it grew and surrounded him.

It was like watching a bad movie as parts of him started catching fire and sizzling. Seconds later an awful explosive sound was heard, and there was nothing left of Bang but the pieces scattered throughout the park.

Pitch threw Rocky and Tommy off of him. "Brother!" he yelled, turning his attention toward the two female rangers who did the damage. He blasted them into a patch of trees, using his power to destroy the trees and collapse them on top of the two rangers. The rest of the rangers charged him, and he used his sound waves to surround him and keep them away.

Jen stood and fought back with wind, creating a circle of wind around him and trying to push toward him. It wasn't working until Zhane jumped in and shook the ground a bit, throwing him off balance and allowing her to pick him up and throw him down. As he hit the ground, the white and red rangers appeared out of nowhere and led the attack.

The rest of the team followed their lead, and it didn't take long before Pitch had seven planetary rangers with seven separate attacks on top of him. Tommy hit him and fell back, landing next to Kim. "Perhaps it's time we show him all seven powers combined."

"Perhaps you're right," Kim said with a smile as she watched Pitch, staggering and disoriented. She yelled for the others to join her and she called for their cannon. It fell into their hands and they fired, the seven elements combining and hitting him with a force that proved to be too much for him.

Seconds after he went back down he was raised back up, and the team called on their zords. They quickly realized that the powers he had at normal sized were muted at city sized, and it was much easier to bring him down the second time. Kim called for them to regroup together briefly, and they all teleported out to the Command Chamber.

* * *

"I don't like this," Tommy said, turning toward Kim as they all powered down. Arius was gone and the man trying to steal his fiancé didn't look like the type to simply be defeated and walk away.

"You shouldn't," a voice called out, and everyone turned to see Karone standing there.

Zhane was the first to approach her. "You're back," he greeted, refraining from giving her the welcome he wanted to give her in front of everybody. She tended to go off throughout the galaxy, doing odd jobs when she was needed and trying to help. This last time she'd been gone two weeks and he missed her.

She briefly acknowledged Zhane before she continued. "Deimos here, that's not a good sign," she said. She had heard the rumors of him personally going after Earth while she was masquerading in a seedy bar in the far corners of the galaxy. "I knew him. The only reason he stayed in line was because he feared Dark Specter. Once I conquered Earth, he was next on the list of targets I had to deal with. I didn't want him challenging me for the right to lead."

"What should we expect from him?" Kim asked, turning her full attention on the former queen of evil.

"He's smart, ruthless, cunning," Karone paused and made a face. "If he wants you he will come after you, destroying everyone around you in the process. He has had Arius blazing a path to the throne for him, but if he's here now there's going to be trouble. I know what he can do to those who resist. Even ranger teams. Dark Specter was the only reason he was tame before but now…" her voice trailed off.

"So basically we have to stay alert?" Tommy asked with a frown. He didn't like the idea of Deimos running around their planet, coming after his fiancé. After one encounter it was obvious that he wasn't the type of villain they could simply push until he got greedy and they won.

"Stay alert, check out any disturbance, be ready for anything," the Karone replied, agreeing with the silver ranger.

"So then how do you destroy him?" Rocky asked. Knowing he was tough was nice and all, but he wanted to know how to make him go away. If Deimos's plan was to kill everyone who stood between him and Kim, things could get messy. He could not sit there again waiting to see if his wife was going to die or not, they needed to end this before she took a hit for her best friend.

Karone looked over at him and frowned. "That was the million dollar question."

"You said he was on your hit list before," Jason piped up. "What was the plan then?" He remembered her as Astronema, he doubted she had her sights set on him and didn't have a way to completely get rid of him.

"The plan was to use Darkonda," she replied. Her henchman was just as ruthless as Deimos, he had ways to make her enemies disappear that even she didn't know about. Of course that put him on her hit list as well, and she was going to use him to get rid of Deimos, then while he was distracted with that she'd send Ecliptor after him. Ecliptor was the only one she fully trusted. After getting rid of some of her strongest competition, no one in the galaxy would have dared to challenge her.

"Great," Jason grumbled. That was not the answer he was looking for.

"It's fine," Kim assured him as she started thinking of all the possibilities. "Billy can you recalibrate the sensors, make sure my family is being watched, everyone else's families as well – who knows how far he will take this. I want to be alerted of anything out of the ordinary around them or around town so that we can investigate. A thousand false alarms are better than missing one real emergency."

"That should not be a problem," Billy replied. It was just a matter of expanding the areas he was focused on and making sure the sensors were on a higher sensitivity level. It would take him thirty minutes.

"As for the rest of us, we'll just keep going about our daily business. We will defeat him and it will tough, but I know in the meantime we all have lives and responsibilities. Just be more aware than ever of your communicators, be ready to come the moment you're called," Kim said as she looked at her team. She knew she didn't have to say that to them, she didn't have a problem with any of them. She just wanted them to know what she thought about the situation.

"So what if he comes down here tomorrow?" Carri asked, curious as to just how they were going to defeat them. She got continuing on and all, but that still didn't solve their problem.

"He's not coming after me again personally, not now anyway," Kim said, looking over at Tommy who nodded in agreement. If it was just about him attacking and kidnapping her, he would have done it today. He obviously proved that he could take on the entire ranger team with ease. "He's got a plan, we'll let it play out and take care of whatever he throws at us. In the meantime, I'll do some research and see what I can do about us defeating Deimos the next time he shows his face."

"I agree," Tommy said, stepping forward and siding with Kim before anyone could argue with her. The two of them were in agreement, that should be the end of the story. "Let's take this like any other villain for now and gather information. We will stay vigilant, work on our plan when we have something, but it's too early in the game and we don't know enough yet. The best thing to do at the moment is continue on as close to normal as possible."

"In that case I have work to get back to," Carri said. She didn't really agree that they should do nothing, but she understood why. They didn't have anything on Deimos. They knew nothing about who he was or what he was planning on doing. There wasn't much they could do for now.

"Me too," Rocky replied. He could only keep his office door locked for so long before Jessica would start to get nosy. The thought made him cringe a little bit, but fortunately he was almost finished there and then he could head home.

"I think we all do," Tommy said, thinking about his own work he needed to do. His day was close to being over as he was only required to stay until four. Then he would be able to go back to his more immediate concern of what happened on Phaedos, as well as think some on his own about what was going on with Deimos.

"Let's get out of here then. If something happens we know where to find everybody," Kim said with a smile. She had research to do and her own work to get back to. She could talk to Mystic Mother tomorrow when she went back for training. She should have some answers, if not she'd seek out other sources. She couldn't go to her today, she was only welcomed there when she was expected. So for now she'd go work on appeasing Sandy.

Everyone agreed with Kim, and one by one they teleported out of the Command Chamber. Seconds' later nobody was left but Billy, who stayed long enough to do what needed to be done with the sensors before taking off himself.


	18. A Ninjetti Quest

**Disclaimer:** As usual, what's known to be from the PR Universe belongs to Saban. There are references to Callisto, who belongs to Universal. Everyone else is mine and cannot be used without my permission.

Dark Inheritance  
"A Ninjetti Quest"

Carri returned home early that evening. She felt fabulous, better than she had in days. This afternoon's battle was the first since she and Tommy regained consciousness. Being morphed and fighting was the push she didn't know she needed, the push that made her feel much better than one hundred percent.

The fact that the fight had been a bitch hadn't deterred her at all. They won, that was what mattered. Sure Deimos was there now, and sure he was going to make their lives hell. The more she thought about him though, the less she was inclined to worry. They had defeated an Olympian goddess. Sure she was crazy and unstable, but she was still a goddess, capable of destroying them all without blinking. She knew the road to get there was not going to be easy, probably far from it, but they'd get rid of Deimos. They had to, the consequences of Kim turning into Kemora were worse than anything Deimos would ever do and she would do everything in her power to avoid that.

Once she convinced herself that despite the fact they were clueless, they would defeat Deimos if only because they had to, she focused back on work and ran around, pushing to get things done. She was surprised at how much she'd got caught up on. She was finished with most of the major things that needed to get done. The one thing she didn't get to do was head out to the movie set, but that could be reserved for tomorrow. Instead she elected to take her laptop home and sit out on the porch with a beer to catch up on the reminder of her emails.

She took a swig of her beer as she reread her current email to one of the executives at the studio that was going to be distributing Jason's movie. Putting the beer down, she went to type one last small paragraph. As she started typing, she heard the porch door open behind her.

She didn't bother to look back, she had a good feeling who it was. Besides she was fairly certain if she was under attack, the intruder wouldn't take the time to come through her house, opening and closing the back door. Her feeling was confirmed when a familiar pair of arms wrapped themselves around her neck.

"Hey," Rocky greeted, leaning in and kissing her cheek. He glanced briefly at the email she was writing as she gave him a quick hey in response before focusing on finishing the message. He didn't read the content, although he did notice the signature that each email coming from her office account was stamped with. It had the usual, her title, her contact info, and of course her name. Carri L. Hillard.

She reread the last sentence and then hit send before turning around and giving the blue ranger a proper hello kiss. He smiled at her before going to take the open seat beside of her. "You know," he started, the email bringing up something he had thought about during their honeymoon but never had a chance to address with her, "technically you're not Miss Hillard anymore," he said, pointing to the computer screen.

"Yes I suppose I am a Mrs. now," she replied. She hadn't really thought about marriage, about what it truly meant. She loved Rocky, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. Now legally she was spending the rest of her life with him but in her eyes that was just a piece of paper, a formality that was important to Rocky because of his Catholic upbringing. Nothing between them had changed. She loved him and was as committed to him today as she was a month ago. She certainly didn't consider herself a Mrs.

"Mrs. DeSantos," Rocky replied with a smile. She was his wife, she should have his last name. Obviously she hadn't had time to change it, but he was curious when she was going to do it now that things were somewhat getting back to normal.

"You can call me that if you like," she replied with a smile of her own. She certainly wasn't going to refer to herself as Mrs. DeSantos, for a number of reasons.

"I will," he assured her, watching as she picked up her beer and took another swig, "but my question is when are you going officially let the world call you by my name?"

Carri had started to put the beer down but changed her mind and took another giant swig. They had never really talked about her changing her name before. She didn't know if he simply assumed it would be the natural course of things, but he should know better than that with her. She knew for a fact he wasn't even sure she'd agree to marry him, no matter how committed she was to spending the rest of her life with him. Asking her to change her name was kind of absurd.

She didn't want to hurt his feelings, but she wanted him to know this wasn't up for discussion. "The world is not going to call me a DeSantos. I was born a Hillard and I will die a Hillard," she replied, trying to keep her tone light even though she was absolutely ready to stand firm and argue on the subject.

When he shot her a look, she decided to justify herself. "Look, there are a lot of reasons why, but I can simplify it down to two. First, I own a production company, one that is getting a lot of positive glances and potential opportunities, none of which would have come my way if I wasn't a Hillard. It's my work that's getting all the kudos coming my way, but nobody would even turn one eye in my direction if I wasn't Jonathan Hillard's daughter. The Hillard name gets the looks, my work does the rest."

"If you changed your name you could still go by Hillard for work purposes," Rocky pointed out before she could launch into something else. He was going to do his damndist to squash any doubt she might have. She was his wife, and while he was satisfied with just that, part of him still wanted her to be Mrs. DeSantos.

"True," she replied, giving him that one. However that wasn't her only reason. "The other thing," she paused, not sure quite how to phrase it, "Hillard is who I am, even though some days my family drives me insane and I wish I could change my name and run off and join the circus. I built my entire life, my whole essence of me, as a Hillard. By changing my name, I lose myself. I start over new, and I don't want to do that. I may be a pain in the ass but I happen to like Carri Hillard, and if I become Carri DeSantos, I lose who I am and become your wife and go from there."

Rocky looked hurt and Carri picked up on it immediately. "Not saying that I don't want to be your wife, because I do, I am, I just don't want people to see that as who I am. If anybody asks I'd be happy to say that I'm Carri Hillard and you're my husband. I want being your wife to be part of who I am, I don't want people to see it as the only part of who I am."

"I get it," he replied. He did, he'd known since the beginning Carri was independent. She wasn't like most girls, who would be happy to take a husband and fall back on him for everything. She was the type to spend the rest of her life with him and still be her independent self. He was surprised she'd so easily said yes to his proposal, he thought he'd have to talk her into it. He was happy she was his wife now, and if she was afraid people would define her as Mrs. DeSantos first instead of the person who she was, he understood. He wouldn't pressure her about it. "I'm not going to pressure you. Of course, that's going to make it weird for our future kids."

The tone was joking, but it made Carri take another swig from her bottle. Kids. They had both talked about having kids, and both were in agreement that now wasn't even close to the time. They both had said that maybe in the future they'd consider it, although she knew he was far more likely to ever want kids than she was. Of course that wasn't a point worth arguing over given that Billy said it was probably never going to happen for her or Tommy. "Good thing Kemora attacked us and Billy had to go and screw my system up. We won't have to worry about it." Her voice was bitterer than she intended and she made a face. She didn't want kids, but she didn't like the fact that should she maybe change her mind one day, Kemora had ensured that choice was taken away from her.

"Babe," Rocky started, but the tone of her voice got him to pause. He didn't know what to say to her. He knew neither one of them wanted kids right now, but in five years they could change their minds. If they did change their minds they could try, but according to Billy the chances were slim at best. Both she and Tommy had DNA that wasn't exactly right, and parts of it weren't completely calibrating the way they needed to with their human DNA which meant unless something changed, it wasn't ever going to meld with anyone else's DNA to create life. It was the aftermath of Billy implementing a procedure that he hadn't had as much time to work on as he would have liked.

She picked one hand up and waved him off. What was done was done. "It doesn't matter. I'm alive, I'm happy where I am in life without kids, so we'll survive." She was too much like her mother to ever want to have kids anyway. Years down the road, if she changed her mind, well it was an injury suffered in the defense of her home planet, this was the life she chose, she'd put on her big girl panties and deal with it.

She could see the look on Rocky's face, knew he was trying to figure out what to say, how to make her feel better. He didn't need to; she was more aggravated over Kemora than sad about never having kids she didn't want. He couldn't do anything about Kemora, therefore he couldn't do anything to make her feel better. Before the entire thing got out of control, a soft red glow shone through her back door.

Rocky, whose back was turned, missed the light, but Carri saw it and knew exactly what it was. She stood and chugged the rest of her beer, waving at the materializing figures. "What?" Rocky asked, turning just in time to see Kim wave back as she and Tommy headed to the back door. He sighed. He hadn't gotten to say what he wanted to say, but he supposed that door was closed for now.

"Hey guys," Kim said as she slid the door open and walked out, her fiancé in tow. Tommy stepped on the porch behind her, sliding the door shut, and the two of them walked over to the porch chairs and made themselves comfortable.

"What brings you here?" Rocky asked, looking from one friend to the other. It wasn't like Kim to just drop by with Tommy, especially not teleporting herself in. This had to be something serious.

"I hear we have a little spirit animal problem," she said, glancing briefly at Carri, who had just slid back down into her chair. Tommy had filled her in once they both got home. While she had a few theories, the best thing to do was go straight to the source. She may be a master but she knew there were things Dulcea was planning on teaching her in time, things she didn't need to be considered a master but things it would be nice to know.

Tommy had said they could go whenever she felt like taking them, but she thought tonight sounded as good a night as any. She had cheated a bit, jumping back in time to go visit Ninjor that morning before coming back forward and going to work. She hadn't cut it as close as she'd liked, it got her in a bit of trouble with Sandy but Ashley, as always, let it slide. The worst part was Ninjor was less help than she thought he'd be. He knew of Deimos, and he kept going on and on about how he was a great demon who could not get his hands on a Phadosian master. As far as how to stop him though, he had nothing.

Mystic Mother was probably going to be her best source. She couldn't talk to her until the morning though, and she wanted to fill in time between now and then talking to Dulcea. Her mentor may be confined to Phaedos, but she knew a lot about what went on throughout the galaxy. That was why she'd happily agreed to make the trip tonight.

"Spirit animal problem?" Rocky questioned, looking around the table. It quickly became painfully obvious that he was the only one at the table who had no clue what was going on.

"Tommy and I had," Carri paused, not exactly sure how to explain what happened, "some sort of out of body experience while we were unconscious."

She shot the silver ranger a questioning look, as if daring him to do better, and he made a face. He had no idea how the hell to describe it either. "We both share the same memory of being on Phaedos. It was too real to be a dream, but we were lying in the Command Center so it obviously wasn't our physical selves questing through Phaedos."

Rocky turned sharply toward his wife. "Why didn't you tell me?" He was hurt that something was going on and she didn't feel the need to let him in.

"Honestly, I thought it was just a dream. A really freaky realistic dream that didn't seem like a dream at all. It wasn't until I talked to Tommy today that I knew it was something more. I was going to tell you tonight, we just hadn't gotten there yet," she finished, giving him a look. Had he not jumped into the last name thing, he may not have been surprised. On the other hand, she doubted she was going to jump right into it regardless of what happened when he got home. She didn't want him to worry, it was much easier just to fill him in when Kim got there to whisk her away.

"Alright," he said, turning toward Kim, the only one he knew that really knew anything about Phaedos and spirit animals. "What's the plan?"

"I'm taking these two to Phaedos tonight. We'll talk to Dulcea, she what she thinks, where she wants them to go from here," she replied. Given what Tommy told her, they were in the middle of some sort of spirit animal led quest when they woke back up in the Command Chamber. Quests like that you didn't just give up on, they'd have to finish it if it was indeed real.

"Great," Rocky replied, glad there was an easy plan of action and they could put this behind them, "so when do we leave?"

Kim glanced at Carri, hoping the white ranger would tell her husband he didn't need to go. There wouldn't be anything for them to do there, and once Dulcea sent Tommy and Carri off she wanted some alone time with her mentor. Her friend got the hint and turned to face her husband. "You can stay here. No need for you to sit there and twiddle your thumbs while Tommy and I seek answers."

"I don't like that plan," he said, somewhat agitated. He'd just gotten her back from the brink of death, he didn't want her running off on an adventure without him. The thought of it made his stomach turn.

"Either Dulcea will tell them they are wrong, and we'll be done there in five minutes, or she'll tell them they are right, in which case she's going to send them out on a mission that even I can't assist with. Then there will be nothing to do except wait, which gives me a fabulous time to practice my skills with my mentor," Kim tried to give him an explanation that would be satisfactory. "Either way, I promise I will bend time and have them back here as quickly as possible."

Rocky nodded slowly. To say that he didn't like the idea was an understatement. However sitting alone on Phaedos while Carri and Tommy did a mission and Kim worked with Dulcea wasn't his idea of a good time. All he would have to do would be pace around, waiting for them to come back. It could take hours, days even for them to return. At least if he stayed here he could preoccupy himself, and with Kim's ability to bend time he had the promise of a quick return. "Fine," he said slowly, giving in to the fact that his wife was going to run off on a mission without him.

Carri reached over and grabbed his hand, giving it a quick squeeze. "It will be fine," she assured him, not bothering to look over at Tommy. They had to fight to get to the point they were at before they came back to reality. To say the jungle wasn't safe was an understatement. However that wasn't going to stop her from going back. "When do we leave?" she asked, turning toward Kim.

"Now," Kim replied. She wanted to go ahead and get going, let them do what they needed to do so they could get back. She smiled and stood, Tommy following suite and Rocky and Carri not far behind.

Rocky stepped over to his wife, putting his arms around her waist and leaning in for a kiss. "Be safe," he said, looking at her carefully as he got a sinking feeling in his stomach. Phaedos was a planet that was important for the side of good. The great power was there, Dulcea was there – but as he knew first hand it also had a lot of dangers lurking in the dark. He did not want to let her go, but he wasn't going to stop her.

"Always am," she replied with a grin. At least that was somewhat true.

"Come on," Kim said, grabbing her fiancé's hand and leading him to the door. "Let's go inside and we'll teleport off from there. Carri's house was angled so that the neighbors couldn't see much of her backyard, and the only thing behind it was the view of the lake in the distance. Still, it wasn't worth the risk of teleporting outside.

The white ranger nodded, and then she and Rocky followed their two friends inside so they could start on their mission.

* * *

Minutes later the three rangers found themselves at the temple ruins on Phaedos. For Kim this was a common meeting spot. However neither Tommy nor Carri had been there since their freshman year of college when they received their permanent Ninjetti powers, over ten years ago. Carri was taking it all in and thinking back to that day, to what led to their arrival on Phaedos and the first fight she had with her Ninjetti powers. Tommy, who had thought briefly of that day, was thinking more of his first time on Phaedos and the quest he took with Kim and the other rangers.

Tommy was the first to shake those thoughts away, and he immediately noticed that the three of them were still alone. "Do we need to go find her?" he asked, turning toward Kim.

"She'll find us. When she is ready," Kim replied. Dulcea was aware of outsiders who stepped foot in her territory. Between all of the titles Kim carried that made up who she was, she gave off a very unique signature, one that announced its presence wherever she went. Dulcea would know she was there, and usually would not seek her out. However with two other Planetary rangers on the planet, chances were she would come to them.

"Great," Carri mumbled, wondering exactly how long it would take for Dulcea to take note of them. She didn't notice the owl fly in, and even if she did she wouldn't recognize its importance. Tommy and Kim did, and they tried to get her attention but their efforts were wasted as the white ranger crossed her arms over her chest and continued. "I want to get this done, find out if I'm crazy or not, and get back to the million other things on my plate."

"Patience is a key virtue for a ranger," a voice said, and Carri spun to see Dulcea standing there. She didn't have any response, at least one that she thought was appropriate to give to the master warrior, and instead she made a face and mumbled some sort of agreement.

Dulcea simply smiled and went to greet her student. Through her own inquiries she had gathered much knowledge about the Planetary team. The white ranger's response was not unexpected. She was a good ranger, but there were a few of the finer points she was lacking in, such as patience. The first time they met, when she bestowed the Zeo Rangers with Ninjetti powers, she spoke to Zordon about the possibility of having some of his other rangers train with her, round them out a bit. He thought about having Carri train. It would do her some good, make her future years coordinating with some of the ranger leaders go easier. In the end though he decided that the path to Phaedos was Kim's alone to take and that the power had something else in mind for his yellow ranger.

"Dulcea," Kim said as her mentor turned her attention toward her. "It's good to see you."

"You as well," Dulcea replied, noting she was in much better spirits than the last time she saw her. It was obvious why, she had her friends back. "What is the reason for your visit?"

"Tommy and Carri had some questions, and while I have some ideas, I thought perhaps you could help them," Kim explained. Her ideas were solid but in the end they weren't really all that helpful.

"I would imagine they do," Dulcea said, gesturing toward Tommy and Carri. She had a feeling she knew exactly what this was about, but she would let them reply on their own. "Tell me, what is troubling you?"

Carri glanced at Tommy, both of them trying to figure out the best way to answer without sounding crazy. Finally Tommy spoke. "When Kemora attacked recently we were both left in a comatose state," he started the explanation, unaware that Dulcea knew all the details of the attack. When she nodded he continued. "While unconscious, we both had the same vision of being here, of following our sprit animals."

"It was no vision," Dulcea assured them, watching as they both seemed relieved. "The panther and the falcon saved your lives, and while your bodies were in disarray they brought your spirits here for a quest. A way of repayment I would assume."

"But… I mean… how is that even possible?" Carri asked. It was some sort of out of body experience which made no sense what-so-ever.

"Your bodies being in the state they were in leaves your sprits free to go until they are pulled back into the land of the living," Dulcea replied. It wasn't a surprise that they were transported here.

"So why did they bring us here? What did they want us to find?" Tommy asked. They never finished the quest they were sent on. Perhaps there was an easy answer and they could get back home. He doubted it though.

"They saved your spirit and most likely brought your spirits back with them – probably for protection at first, until they decided there was something they wanted you do or something they wanted to show you," Dulcea replied. These rangers had been Ninjetti's for a long time and had become very connected with their spirit animals whether they knew it or not. When they reacted to Kemora's Muirantian powers to save their lives, they used that moment as an opportunity to do something for the rangers they were connected with.

"You knew," Kim said, wide eyed as she stared at her mentor, thinking over everything she was saying. "When I came to you, you knew they were out there with their sprit animals," she finished, gesturing toward the forest.

"I did," Dulcea replied, not apologetic in the least. "Their spirits were out there and you could not be allowed to interfere. This would not change what happened in the end. Either you would have saved them or they would have died, their spirits crossing over into the spirit realm forever."

Tommy and Carri exchanged glances, not sure what this particular moment was about. Kim looked like she was ready to argue, and instead of let this blow out of control Carri spoke. "We didn't get any answers though, we woke up in the Command Chamber before our quest was finished."

"If your spirit guides had a message for you, then you need to finish your quest. You may use your Ninjetti forms to connect with your sprit animals and continue," she said as she focused her attention on Tommy and Carri. "Do you remember the last place you were before you returned to the world of the living?"

"I think we can find the way," Tommy assured her. Once they got back to the great power, he could figure it out. From the ruins it should be a pretty straight shot, they'd just have to take care of the jungle inhabitants on the way.

"Good," Dulcea said, giving them both a smile. "Then I wish you luck on your journey, and may the power protect you."

The duo smiled, they didn't hear that much anymore. They glanced at each other and nodded, a silent acknowledgement that they were both ready to move forward. They quickly morphed into their Ninjetti forms, and then Kim and Dulcea watched them disappear down the side of the ruins and toward the jungle.

* * *

About the same time Rocky was coming home, another ranger was returning home from work. This was the green ranger, who was happily returning to his tiny apartment. It was still odd to him to have his own apartment, to be so settled in on Earth.

He had spent most of his time since the rangers running around the galaxy, having liaisons with Karone whenever she had time. It wasn't often, she was working hard on fighting for the side of good. That was part of the reason they split up all those years ago. He was looking to run around and have some fun, she was taking a more serious approach to life.

After they split up he found the information about Callisto, which led him on the mission that ended with him holding the Green Planetary morpher. When they returned to Earth, he found Karone living with Andros and Ashley. He started to stay with his best friend, and eventually he and Karone got back together.

That was two weeks before getting the call that Callisto and Rhianna were back. He didn't want to volunteer for the mission, but he knew he wasn't going to leave the planet again, not when his teammates might need to make use of his Planetary powers. So he decided to settle on Earth for a while. Maybe permanently or maybe not, but for now he needed to be there.

The first thing he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was that he needed to get his own place. He couldn't keep crashing at Andros and Ashley's, not if he was staying for more than a few months. The problem was, on Earth you couldn't get things based on your family pedigree or your ranger status. You had to have money, and he was most certainly without.

Ashley volunteered to help him out but he refused. It wasn't like he had a way to repay her. Besides, if he was going to stay he needed something that would keep him going for a while. So then Ashley made another offer, a position at her company. They needed more help moving inventory, and she needed someone she trusted to do the job right, on time, and not let anything or anyone get near her finished product. It was a bit of manual labor and a bit of driving a van, for which he was perfect. The only thing he didn't have was a driver's license, but Andros used his own connections at NASADA to take care of that for him.

So now he was busy working during the day when he wasn't rangering, and he was making enough money to afford a little one bedroom apartment, and treat himself to a few Earth luxuries now and then. It was a perfect scenario for him, and for Karone when she was on planet, which was more often than not now that they were back together and there was a serious conflict going on that she could possibly help with.

He walked into the apartment and found his girlfriend sitting on the couch. "Hey," he greeted her, tossing his keys toward the counter, not really concerned with whether or not they landed in the right spot.

"Hey yourself," Karone replied, watching as he walked in and sat down next to her. "How was your day?"

"Other than Deimos? Good," Zhane said, sensing immediately how tense she was. It had to be because of everything that was happening intergalactically. He reached over and rubbed his hand against her arm, brushing against the sleeve of her shirt and lifting the fabric up, exposing the bottom part of what had to have been a nasty cut. "What happened to you?"

"The bar I was at," Karone paused and shrugged. It hadn't been a nice place and they weren't fond of women. She was attacked, but once she proved she was stronger than most of the male inhabitants they let her stay. She was afraid they'd realize who she was, but fortunately her disguise held and she was able to mingle after the initial confrontation. "I had to convince them I was worthy of drinking with them."

He nodded as he thought about it. She was going to get herself killed if she kept trying to sneak into bars that were behind enemy lines. "So are you done spying?" he asked, trying to find out if she was going to stay home or if he had to worry about where she was going next. He got it, he really did. She had a lifetime of sins she had to atone for from her time as Astronema. Assisting other ranger teams though and running missions, that was much less likely to get her killed than spying. That's taking into consideration the fact that two of his teammates should have died not even two weeks ago.

"For now," Karone replied. She knew he hated it when she went places where they could very well kill her first and ask questions later. He was supportive though, he never once told her not to go. This was good, seeing as how if he did their relationship would be over. Again. She enjoyed spending time with Zhane, enjoyed their relationship, but it wasn't more important to her than the work she had to do, the work she needed to do.

He'd been turned evil by a spell once before, which was another thing in her life she had to make up for, but he could never understand what it was like to be her. To live day in and day out as Astronema, to spend her entire life working so that she could one day be the queen of evil. She couldn't even name all the things that she'd done that she felt guilty for. She wouldn't even try to, it was too much. Instead of dwelling on all that, she put all of her energy into helping the rangers' missions. Sometimes as a replacement ranger, sometimes as a spy, and sometimes she'd just do things on the side that needed to get done, that the current team couldn't get to.

She knew she could never make up for being Astronema, but she could come close. She went where she was needed, and right now she was needed on Earth. "With Deimos here I am going to stay close to Earth. They might be able to use me."

"Good," Zhane replied, somewhat relieved. "Then you will have the pleasure of hanging out with me some," he said, a goofy grin on his face.

"Good," she echoed him as she stood, watching as he looked at her curiously. "Then you are going to spend time with me tonight at a restaurant. Andros wants to take us out to dinner." She wasn't the only one trying to make up for things that happened when she was Astronema. Her brother wanted to make up for all the time lost. They would get together when they were on the same planet, and if something she was doing needed her brother's particular skill set she would call him in for help. He was an excellent liaison between worlds and people would listen to him more than they would the former princess of evil. That came in handy sometimes.

Zhane watched as Karone sauntered off toward the front door. He jumped up and scrambled after her, leaning over the counter to grab his keys before the two of them headed off to meet his best friend.

* * *

Once Tommy and Carri left, Dulcea followed and Kim found herself having to hunt her mentor down. She knew the woman did it on purpose, forcing her to use her own abilities to seek her out. She was very good at testing her, and with Kim having nothing better to do but wait for their return now was a very good time for a test.

When she finally caught up to the master, she was on the beach, doing some stretching exercises of her own. She needed to talk about Deimos, but first she wanted to backtrack to what was bothering her earlier. "I wish you could have told me." Verbally attacking her and making her defend her actions wouldn't do Kim any good. It would probably lead to some sort of punishment for her and in the end she will have gotten nowhere.

"Why?" Dulcea questioned, not stopping her exercise. "Would you not have gone against every piece of masters training you had to rush out there and interfere?"

"I," Kim paused. She knew what her training told her. Her training told her that a quest involving spirit animals was concerned was serious business, and as master she could not interfere. However her heart would have gotten in the way of her head. Her heart would have wanted to see them, even if it was just their spirits. To tell them what happened, to say goodbye if that were to be the last interaction she ever had with them.

"Then you know I am right Kaycea," she replied. Her hesitation told her everything she needed to know. She would have ignored her, ignored what she knew to be right, and done something she swore never to do because she let her emotions take over.

Kim frowned. She wouldn't argue. She couldn't argue, she didn't have any ground to stand on. Besides, she had more important things to discuss with her mentor. "I do," she said, agreeing with Dulcea's decision. The other woman simply nodded at her and continued on her exercise.

Knowing exactly what she was doing, Kim stepped in line next to her and proceeded to move simultaneously with her. It was a way to stretch out and practice the fluidity of motions before moving on to more complex matters. If she was going to be here talking to her, she might as well join her.

After a few moments of silence, Dulcea spoke. "What is it that you came here to talk to me about?" she asked. It was obvious in Kim's motions that something else weighed heavily on her mind, and she doubted it had anything to do with Tommy or Carri.

"Deimos," Kim said simply, watching as her mentor hesitated but did not stop. "He paid me a visit today."

Dulcea gave a slight nod of acknowledgement. "Deimos is powerful," she replied. "His name gives those both good and evil reasons to be afraid."

"Are you afraid?" Kim asked. It was an odd question, but one whose answer could give her a lot of information on what exactly she was up against.

"No. He cannot attack me here on Phaedos." That wasn't entirely true. He wouldn't attack her, it would be too risky and he would never get the great power. However if he succeeded in his current battle, if he turned Kaycea evil against her will, she would still be in full control of the crane and he could use that against her, against her world. "You should be."

"Are you saying that I can't defeat him?" Kim asked. It was odd that she said he should scare her, it worried her about what she was up against. She couldn't lose, and if Dulcea of all people thought she might she was in trouble.

"That's not it at all," Dulcea replied. She knew exactly who he was, how difficult this battle could be. She knew what was well within his range of abilities, how he could force her to do what she wanted. She would have broken rules she accepted as a master to see Tommy and Carri's sprits. Deimos would find a line worse than that and he would cross it, forcing her to choose between good and evil to save the ones she loved. "I am saying that you should be afraid of him and allow that to make you cautious. You cannot afford to lose this battle. This world and who knows how many others would not be able to hold up against you as the queen of evil."

"Believe me, I of all people understand that." She'd just battled with Kemora, she knew what she would become. First she would slaughter the people of this dimension. Then she may remain queen for a while, or she may just leave the world in ruins as she traveled to other dimensions, leaving a trail of death and destruction in her wake. "I am going to defeat him, I just don't know how."

"That is always a question one should seek answers too," Dulcea replied, waiting for Kim to ask the specific question as she continued on with her exercises.

"I was hoping you had some answers," Kim said, watching as Dulcea gave her a questioning look without stopping her progress. "I thought perhaps you had heard something about him that may help me in my battle."

"Nothing I have heard can help you," Dulcea said as she shook her head. It was the truth. She knew of Deimos, she knew what he was capable of, but as far as how to destroy him goes that it something she could not assist with. She finished her current exercise and stopped, looking at Kim as she lifted her staff off of the ground. "What I can do is make sure you have not forgotten any of your training. If you are going to fight him you must stay at a master's level on your skills."

"Thank you," Kim said as she reached above her head and called on her own staff. A little hand to hand combat would do her some good. Even if Dulcea didn't have any knowledge, at least she could spend her time on the planet getting back to her Phadosian roots. It may not win the battle, but it will help. The staff fell into her hands and she turned to face her mentor and both shifted into a fighting position, waiting to see who was going to make the first move.

* * *

Deep within the jungle, Kim's teammates continued on their journey as she was working on her training. Carri, who was aggravated at the moment, rolled her eyes as they continued cutting through the trees. "Dinosaur bones? I mean really," she said with a huff. The archaic thing came to life and took her for a bit of a ride.

Tommy couldn't help but chuckle. He'd actually seen that same skeleton before when he was sixteen. They'd gone through a different part of the jungle last time they were there and had come across a different set of foes. This time though he was traveling a familiar path, and wasn't all too surprised to see an old enemy coming back to life. At least he knew how to put it down quickly.

"What's so funny?" she asked, the irritation clear in her voice as they approached the temple which held the great power.

"Tell Rocky when you get home, see what he says," Tommy replied. He doubted Rocky would have forgotten about the dinosaur skeletons. He grabbed Carri's arm and yanked her to the side, his warning the first time of not getting too close coming back to her. He didn't want to trigger the guardians of the great power. He was certain there would be more battles up ahead and that was one they didn't need to waste time on. Instead they headed off to the side, following the last of the path they took before they woke up.

"We've got other things to talk about," she muttered with a sigh. Of course she hoped they were done talking, hoped he will have forgotten about their earlier conversation all together by the time they return. If Kim was going to cut time though it wouldn't help and it would still be fresh in his mind. He had dropped the discussion over her last name, but she knew he felt bad about the baby issue. She had her fingers crossed that she could fill his head with enough details about their Phaedos trip when she got back that the need to comfort her over something that wasn't even an issue wouldn't cross his mind. She was bitter about it, that was for sure, but she wasn't sitting at home crying for kids she didn't want in the first place.

Tommy picked up on her tone immediately. "Married life not all it's cracked up to be?" he teased. He was surprised to see her get married. As long as he'd known her, it was never something she was interested in. Still when Rocky proposed she accepted and she did the whole big wedding thing. He thought there was more to the story than what she was letting on, but he couldn't pry it out of Kim and it wasn't the sort of secret he would force her to tell him.

"It's, I mean," she paused and grunted. It wasn't even the baby thing that got her aggravated when she thought about their last conversation, it was the last name thing. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him but she had never thought about marriage. Yet she went through with the ceremony, something seventeen year old her would be surprised about. However she wasn't going to change her name. Rocky should know that. "I never had to worry about husband and wife things before. I think I liked it better without them," she finally replied.

The silver ranger chuckled. "You knew when you started going out that he was Catholic. This thing was bound from the beginning to either end in marriage or a breakup." Although his friend wasn't as religiously devoted now as he was when they first met, he knew there were certain beliefs he followed. When they shared a dorm room in college they talked about marrying their ranger girlfriends. Tommy always thought Kim would say yes, but Rocky was never sure. Not because he didn't think she loved him, but because she wasn't one who cared about marriage period. He thought her own parents had something to do with her aversion to marriage but he wasn't sure. It didn't matter though because he knew if they were going to stay together forever, as a Catholic that meant marriage. He'd done enough already that his religion would shun him for, that was one thing he wasn't going to break.

"I was kinda hoping I could persuade him otherwise," she mused as she shook her head. Then to take the attention of her own relationship issues she switched topics to another relationship. "Speaking of marriages, how is the wedding planning going?" She knew good and well what the answer was, she just wanted to talk about something else.

"We haven't started," Tommy replied. Kim wasn't going to worry about it until after Carri's wedding, then everything happened with Kemora and now Deimos is here. Who knows when they will actually sit down and start planning anything. However he didn't need to explain that to Carri. "Then again I'm fairly certain you knew that."

"No," she replied with a grin. "I mean we haven't really talked about it in at least a few weeks." They'd talked at length about her planning, or lack thereof, when Carri should have actually been working on her own wedding. However she'd found it much less stressful to talk to Kim about her upcoming wedding with Tommy.

Tommy looked over at her and made sure she saw the roll of his eyes. "If you recall, the last few weeks haven't exactly been good talk about our wedding conditions." She was trying to change the subject and they both new it.

"What are you talking about?" Carri asked as she glanced over at him and smiled. "I did at least five work related projects while trekking through Phaedos with you the last time, and you couldn't manage a little wedding planning?"

"Funny," Tommy replied dryly, smiling to himself as he thought about how it was nice that they were pushing through on this quest joking around like high school instead of trying to kill each other. Whether or not it would last to the finish line was yet to be seen, but it was nice for the moment.

They both stopped short as a series of noises caught their ears. "I think we found where we left off," Carri said, glancing briefly toward Tommy as she acknowledged the waiting panther and falcon.

"Let's move forward then," Tommy replied as they went to figure out where they needed to go next.

* * *

After finishing what was left of her afternoon at work, Jen took a shower and got changed before heading to the restaurant her husband wanted to meet her at. He hated that he missed her at lunch, and he thought it would be fun to go out for a late dinner with some of their friends that night.

She walked in the door and immediately spotted the silver guardian uniforms. As the hostess approached her, she waved her off and headed for the table of three. "Hey guys," she said, briefly acknowledging Eric and Taylor before turning and sitting next to her husband.

"Hey yourself," Wes replied, leaning in to give her a kiss. As she pulled back and smiled at him, he couldn't help but give her a big smile back. "You're in a good mood, considering everything that happened this afternoon." He was, of course, referencing the rangers. Even though he and Eric were known rangers, he couldn't specifically ask in front of Jen. People couldn't know that she was a Planetary ranger, or even suspect her of being involved with them.

"You talking about our visitor?" she asked, glancing around the table.

The others nodded. They had all seen it on the news and the Silver Guardians had taken a particular interest in the newest big bad threatening their world. "He looks intense," Taylor said as she leaned in a bit. She was actually kind of jealous she wasn't in on this fight. She would love to be a part of it.

"He's not going to be easy that's for sure," Jen said with a sigh. She didn't know how the rangers defeated him. She studied the team, studied the records, and knew they won in the end. However Kim's histories never said how they defeated Deimos. Of course she of all people knew that history wasn't set in stone, and that just because they defeated Deimos one way didn't mean they could repeat the method even if they knew it. In fact it didn't necessarily mean they would defeat him at all.

"Do you have a plan?" Eric asked. If it was his team, he would have spent the rest of afternoon strategizing.

"It's a work in progress," Jen said with a sigh. Eric raised an eyebrow and she elaborated. "Nobody knows how to make a plan. This isn't a normal situation. Kim is researching. Trust me, as soon as we have something we will move forward with it." She didn't like not having a plan either. The standard fight until we win isn't going to be good enough to defeat Deimos.

"How concerned should we be?" Wes asked. He didn't like the idea that this guy may be more difficult than any they'd faced before. Between all of them they'd seen the worst of the worst.

"The Silver Guardians?" she asked, wondering if her husband wanted to put them on alert just in case. She watched as he nodded. "It wouldn't hurt to keep any eye out for anything odder than normal. However in the end there isn't much you can do. We have to do this – Kim has to do this. You know the ramifications if she loses."

Wes nodded and briefly made eye contact with Eric. Everyone at the table knew what it meant if Kim lost. It meant a force of evil would arise that they didn't have the capability to stop. He sighed and turned back toward his wife. To really have this conversation, they couldn't be in the middle of a public restaurant. Besides, they were planning on having a nice dinner, not stressing over Deimos.

Instead he turned the conversation back toward his original inquiry. "So then if your afternoon was essentially a disaster, what is it that put the smile on your face?"

"Oh," Jen said, giving him a small smile. "I talked to my mentor today."

Wes raised an eyebrow as Taylor spoke. "Who is your mentor?" she asked. As far as she knew, Jen hardly had any contact with anyone outside of the small group of rangers who knew her identity, and she certainly wasn't close enough to anyone to consider them a mentor.

"You wouldn't know her," Jen said dismissively. "She took me under her wing when I was young. It has been a long time since I've seen her and she dropped by today."

"Oh," Taylor replied, the implication not lost on her. When Jen was young, she was living in the future. It meant if she had a mentor, that person was from the future. So she had a time traveling visitor. "Isn't that… I mean… wouldn't your mentor be part of your old job? Isn't that a bad thing?"

"She doesn't work for them," Jen replied, not surprised that Taylor put some of the pieces together. Eric obviously understood as well, although she never mentioned the time guardian to him. Wes knew exactly who she was talking about.

Taylor nodded, trying to understand and wishing she could flat out ask the questions she had in the restaurant. "So you won't get in trouble?"

"No she is on my side," Jen assured her. The time guardian was on her side more than anybody. She alone knew how important it was for her to stay in the past. "She came by to assure me that everything was ok."

"How does she know?" Wes asked. The future could change, what was ok now could easily turn before it was all said and done.

"Because she is working hard to make it that way," Jen replied. She had to make Wes understand. "She said things here will take care of themselves, and that she's watching my hometown. The only thing that might hurt my cause is you and Tripp. You are going to make people suspicious."

Wes made a face. He didn't like the idea of not being able to keep an eye on things. He trusted his wife, and she trusted her mentor, but still it wasn't easy to simply sit still. Before he could say anything more, their waitress returned. She asked to take their orders and as Eric spoke, Jen turned toward him and gave him a reassuring smile. It would all work out. It had to, there was no way he was letting his wife get taken away from him.

Trying to push those thoughts aside, he turned toward their waitress to place his order. He would do his best not to think about it so the four friends could have a nice relaxing dinner. With Deimos around, this may be the last one they get for a while.

* * *

Tommy and Carri were pushing through thick vegetation. They had peeled the face covering down from their uniform for no other reason than it was hot and they wanted to feel the air around their heads. They should stay in full uniform. So far they'd seen more twists and turns than they thought possible, and fought an ongoing onslaught of creatures trying to keep them away. They were a little beat up, but so far they were still in one piece.

As they continued on, the distinctive cry of their animal spirits gave them the impression of open air ahead and they pushed on until Tommy stumbled out into the open, Carri tumbling out right behind him.

She pulled herself to her feet and looked around, immediately noticing a giant rock formation in the center of a big clearing in the jungle. "So we walk around it?" she asked hopefully.

They both watched as the falcon and panther ascended the formation and disappeared. "Nope," Tommy replied with a sigh as he walked over and looked for a good foot hold.

Carri went beside him and studied the rock. It was far from smooth, and it didn't take long for her to find the ideal place to climb. The two Ninjetti worked their way slowly to the top, and after twenty minutes they were standing on the peak, an almost perfect circle about five feet in diameter.

The sounds of their spirit animals rang through from inside the rock. Tommy glanced over at Carri and raised an eyebrow. He took a few steps toward the center, and then like magic the rock gave away and he fell through. "Tommy!" Carri called out, taking one step toward him before the rock opened wider and the ground fell out from underneath her.

Both rangers had fallen out of their zords, they knew what a freefall felt like, yet this was nothing like that. It felt more graceful, like something was guiding them down. That didn't keep Tommy from landing ungracefully on the floor, with Carri falling practically on top of him.

Carri wasted no time untangling herself from the silver ranger and going to stand on her own. She started to say something, but then she got a good look at the room they were standing in. "Damn," she muttered as Tommy stood as well.

"So this is where they were leading us," he said as he tried to take it all in. The inside of the rock was huge, much larger than he would have thought. He assumed it was some sort of illusion or magic, which wouldn't surprise him given what else he saw. It was an open area but it was full of lush vegetation and a beautiful waterfall at the back, the river it became cutting the area down the middle. There were animal noises everywhere but not an animal to be found. They were all spirit animals he assumed. The strangest part though was the illusion of sun and sky on the inside, an impossibility given the fact they were in a rock.

"Looks that way," Carri replied, noticing the images of the panther and falcon staring at them. "What is this place?" She glanced over at Tommy hoping he would have an answer to the question.

"I'm not sure," he said as he tried to come up with something. Before he could fathom a guess, the image of crane came up to join their spirit animals and made enough noise to get their attention. "I think it is a safe assumption Kim does."

Carri pulled her communicator to her mouth. "Kim?" she questioned, getting nothing but static in response. "So then how do we get back to the top to get out of here to ask her?"

"That is the million dollar question," Tommy said. As he spoke, the crane grew louder and disappeared. Moments later it returned, a familiar red light in tow. "Kim," Tommy said as his fiancé emerged.

"Oh," Kim said, looking around and realizing where they were. She had a strong bond with the crane, stronger than either of her friends had with their spirit animals. It called to her and she used her abilities to follow it back here. She wasn't completely sure of what she would find but she had to admit, seeing her friends here wasn't it.

"Oh?" Carri repeated, wanting to know what the hell oh meant.

"Sorry," Kim apologized. "Just surprised to see you here. Your bond with your spirit animals has grown over the years more than I realized. I suppose it's why they brought you here."

"Where exactly is here?" Tommy's no nonsense red tone taking over, as he hated to be left out of the loop.

"This is a sacred gathering place for spirit animals. The crane brought me here years ago, when I first started studying with Dulcea," she said as she gestured around. "It's a hell of a journey," she mused.

"So why bring us here? We're bonded with our sprit animals, I get that, but we aren't training like you were," Carri pointed out. She hoped it didn't mean they now had to train. They had enough to deal with.

"Honestly? Who knows." It wasn't always easy to decipher the actions of their spirit animals. Even Dulcea wouldn't have an answer to that question. "They saved you, perhaps they wanted to open your eyes to their world. Or maybe after years of being connected with you they felt it was time to really let you into their world. I wouldn't be surprised if one day the others were led here as well."

Tommy nodded and looked around, studying all of its features. "This is the one place all our spirit animal guides gather?"

"No," Kim replied, watching as the other two rangers turned to look at each other. "It's one of a few. I've only see one other that's located near Ninjor's temple."

"How does it work?" Carri asked as she gestured around. This obviously wasn't a feat of nature. She didn't know exactly what had pulled this together.

"Magic," Kim replied with a shrug. She didn't understand the magic that held this together, however she was still a novice sorceress. One day she would. She watched as Carri walked toward the running water and went to stick her hand in it. "Wait," she called out, moving quickly to pull her back.

The white ranger felt herself getting forcibly yanked back. She turned and made a face. "I can't touch the water?"

"These are sacred waters – although I don't even think you can call what this is water," Kim replied. It gave the illusion of being nothing more than a waterfall, but in reality it was pure spirit realm magic flowing freely. "Part of the reason this is such a good gathering place is because of the magic here that connects them. That water? Think of it as their viewing globe. They keep track of things. Like the spirit animal wall we ran into on Eltar last year. This was how our spirit animals knew to find us to let us pass. They are connected to everything involving their realm – including those they are connected to - through this magic."

"Has Dulcea ever been here?" Tommy questioned, curious. This was outside of her reach, yet she was the keeper of the Ninjetti on Phaedos.

"Of course," Kim replied, a hint of amusement in her voice. When Tommy shot her a look she elaborated. "She wasn't always confined to the area surrounding the ruins you know." As she spoke, she noticed their spirit animals disappear, a sign that they were finished with the three of them. "I think we've been given permission to go home."

"Good. I am hot, tired, and ready for a shower," Carri said, looking over at Kim with a smirk on her face.

"Come on guys," Kim said, holding her hands out. They could all work the hard way to get out like she did the first time, or she could simply teleport them. As crazy as things had been lately, she preferred just to teleport them. "Let's say goodbye to Dulcea, then we can head home."

Her friends nodded and seconds later a red light surrounded them all, taking them out of the rock and back to the Ninjetti temple ruins.

* * *

Rocky glanced briefly at his watch. They had been gone twenty minutes. That was fifteen minutes longer than what he was hoping for. He sighed as he tried to refocus on what he was doing.

"Are you even listening to me?" Aisha asked, raising an eyebrow. It was quite obvious he was worrying, again. She showed up five minutes after the others left. She knew Rocky was nervous about something and wasted no time making him spill. She had been doing her best to keep him distracted but apparently it wasn't good enough. "They'll be fine, Kim probably just can't cut it as close as you'd like."

The blue ranger nodded as he thought about it. "It's just… with everything that happened… I don't like it."

"You've got nothing to worry about. We handled Phaedos as teenagers so you don't have to worry about the jungle. And there's no way Kemora is going to be dumb enough to try and attack them there." That last part wasn't exactly true, they both knew it. She knew enough of Kemora to know she did what she wanted when she wanted and Aisha had no doubt she'd go after them if that's what she wanted to do. However the chances were good that they wouldn't see her back for a while.

"I suppose," Rocky replied, although he didn't know if it was as comforting as Aisha wanted it to be.

Aisha made a face. She was going to have to figure out how to get that boys mind on something else before he drove himself crazy. It had only been twenty minutes. "Look, if you want" Before she could finish her sentence, a red light shined throughout the living room. When it dissolved, three familiar figures were standing there.

Kim did a quick survey of the room, smiling as she recognized the former ranger. "Sha!" she exclaimed, going over to embrace Aisha.

Tommy was quick to walk over to say hello as well, while Rocky immediately went up to his wife and gave her a hug. "Glad you're back," he said, loosening the embrace to take a good look at her. She had obviously been a bit banged up and he frowned. "You ok?"

"Fine," she replied, giving him a reassuring smile. She looked better than she had an hour ago. Although it had been worth it, they had gotten pretty banged up on this little quest of theirs. The hour they spent with Dulcea gave their new DNA plenty of time to kick start the healing process, and now a few bruises was all that was left of their fight to get to the spirit animal gathering spot. "Miss me?" she asked with a grin, raising an eyebrow saucily.

"Of course," he replied, grabbing her hand and leading her over to the small group. "It felt like you were gone forever."

"It was just twenty minutes," Carri said with a shrug. Kim wanted to cut it closer, but they had been on Phaedos for over twenty-four hours, it would be much less of a drain on her to push it out a bit and neither Tommy nor Carri had a problem with that.

"Twenty long minutes," Rocky replied as they approached the others. Neither said anything else on the topic though as they joined in on their friends' conversation.

"So what are you doing our way?" Kim asked, excited to see her old friend. She always liked seeing her, but now especially she was a welcome distraction from everything going on.

"I have a conference to go to tomorrow morning in LA. I found out about it this afternoon. The guy they were sending bailed. His wife went into labor," she said, smiling at the others, an indication that this was a very good thing. "So I thought I'd swing by here and see if any of my old friends would like to have dinner and drinks tonight before I head out to LA."

"That sounds fabulous," Carri said with a sigh. She didn't know Aisha well, but she was starving and after their trip to Phaedos an ice cold beer sounded nice. She turned and made contact with the silver ranger and he smiled.

"I'm in too," he replied. Like Carri he would kill for some time to sit down and unwind.

Kim didn't miss the smile exchanged between the two. They had been at odds so much lately it was nice to see them getting along like they were back in high school. Ignoring that for the moment, she spoke. "We're in if they're in," she said, gesturing to herself and the blue ranger who nodded.

"Great I'll see if anybody else wants to join," Aisha said reaching for her purse to retrieve her cell phone.

"Give me a good thirty minutes though," Carri said. She was absolutely not going out in public still covered in a layer of quest filth. "I need a quick shower before we go."

"I probably should stop by the house and change too," Tommy said, speaking loud enough for everyone to hear but looking down at Kim, making it obvious that the comment was more intended for her.

"Then let's all gather here in a half an hour and we'll go out," Aisha said. She didn't have a better place to meet. She didn't have a hotel room, not here anyway. She was going to have dinner with her friends and drive to LA afterwards. It was an early morning tomorrow, otherwise she'd have a few drinks and crash in town with one of her former teammates.

Carri gave a little salute and walked off toward her bedroom. Kim grabbed Tommy's hand and said goodbye to Aisha, teleporting the both of them home. That left Rocky and his childhood best friend with some time to relax before the rangers went out and enjoyed their evening.


End file.
